Jamie Lynn Spears is best known for being Pop Princess Britney Spears' little sister and her role on Zoey 101, but she also garnered quite a bit of attention after announcing she was pregnant in 2007, at just 16-years-old.
The country singer sat down with E! News and opened up about being a teenage mom to daughter, Maddie, 8, and how far she's come in that journey.
"I remember being a little girl and all those emotions come back. Not just being pregnant, but telling your loved ones and going through all that, it's a lot of emotions involved," she explained. "You're just an innocent little girl, and then you look back on how far you came...it's bittersweet."
Speaking of her loved ones, Jamie Lynn said her family was a big reason she learned how to become a good mother, despite her age.
"My family's reaction was exactly what you expected it to be: very shocked, very scared for me…but it was all out of love. I was the baby of the family having a baby," she said. "When I told them I was pregnant, I think the best thing that they did was they supported me. They didn't just let me go do whatever I wanted, but they gave me the freedom to make my choices and grow up. I couldn't have a child and still have mom and dad making decisions for me."
She further explained, "It was a good tough love…I wasn't going to use my age as an excuse. To be a mother is to be a mother, it doesn't matter what age you are."
Jamie Lynn took a long hiatus out of the spotlight in order to focus on motherhood and becoming the best version herself. Now, she wants to show the world how far she's come, through her one-hour TLC special, When the Lights Go Out.
"It was scary for me to let cameras in, because I knew it could go either way, especially me coming from the background I come from," she said. "But the world met me when I was a little girl. They met me when I was Zoey…The last they heard of me was, I guess in their sense, was when I became young mother."
She explained that she took the last 8 years out of the spotlight to really learn and better herself. "I was working very hard. I moved to Nashville for a few years, and I was in college for what I wanted to do for the rest of my life—writing, learning, soaking myself in that community," she revealed. "Not only that, I was growing as a person, building my confidence, finding my voice."
Now, she said, "I feel like it was finally time to let people in so that I could bridge the gap for people who haven't seen me or haven't been up-to-date on what I'm doing… I can bridge the gap between Zoey to the adult Jamie Lynn and really introduce myself for the first time as an adult ."
As for Britney, Jamie Lynn hopes she finds a good "southern" man and eventually has more kids. In fact, Jamie Lynn hopes to have more babies one day, too!
Jamie Lynn Spears: When the Lights Go Out premieres on TLC Sunday, June 26, at 10 p.m. ET.