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Jamie Lynn Spears's book backlash: Mental health charity rejects donations from sales

Jamie Lynn Spears's new book continues to cause controversy.

The younger sister of Britney Spears, who rode her sibling's mega-fame to early success on Zoey 101 and now appears on Sweet Magnolias, has her renamed memoir, Things I Should Have Said, coming out Jan. 18. With Britney's controversial conservatorship case casting a negative shadow on the Spears family, one charity is refusing a donation Jamie Lynn, 30, offered from proceeds of her book sales.

Jamie Lynn and Britney Spears (Photos: Getty Images)
Jamie Lynn Spears's book plans have been impacted by #FreeBritney supporters. (Photos: Getty Images)

This Is My Brave, a nonprofit which helps tell the stories of individuals living with mental illness, shared on Instagram that they would be "declining the donation."

"We heard you," the statement read. "We're taking action. We are deeply sorry to anyone we offended."

(Screenshot: This Is Brave)
(Screenshot: This Is My Brave)

This statement followed Jamie Lynn's announcement on Oct. 11 that she completed writing the memoir. She wrote on Instagram that it gave her "closure on this '30 year long' chapter of my life, and hopefully helps anyone else out there who forgot their worth, lost their voice, or is trying to break an unhealthy cycle in their life." She said, "a portion of my book proceeds will be going to @thisismybrave, because I know how scary it can be to share personal struggles, especially if you don’t feel you have the support or a safe space to do so."

This apparently irked Britney's army of fans — the unstoppable crew fueling the #FreeBritney movement — as the singing superstar has been sharing her mental health struggles under the stringent conservatorship over the last 13 years. The charity's social media pages were filled with messages, including, "Y’all should really rethink this JLS collab" and "You're going to take money from a woman who helped keep her own sister a slave?" Many other comments just shared those powerful two words that have changed the course of Britney's conservatorship: "Free Britney."

A Jamie Lynn source told Entertainment Tonight the charity was receiving "violent threats." However, Yahoo Entertainment has tried to confirm that with the charity and has not yet received a response.

We do know that there has been backlash over the book for some time now, including some from Britney herself.

Jamie Lynn Spears's book: Things I Should Have Said
Jamie Lynn Spears's book: Things I Should Have Said

After Jamie Lynn revealed the book cover — and proposed charitable donation — Britney, 39, mocked her sister's project. She wrote on Instagram that she's considering releasing a book next year, "But I'm having issues coming up with a title so maybe my fans could help!!!! Option #1 … 'S—t, I really don't know' Option #2 … 'I really care what people think.'"

Days later, a Britney source told E! News that the shade was real. "Britney is very, very angry and hurt" and "feels like Jamie Lynn totally abandoned her and let her down in the fight of her life. They were best friends and everything to each other for so long."

And that wasn't the first time. In July, it was announced Jamie Lynn's book was forthcoming — and it would be called I Must Confess. The title was a lyric from Britney’s hit "...Baby One More Time" and soon after Britney wrote on Instagram about previously being unhappy when her sister capitalized on her success.

That led to Worthy Publishing issuing a statement saying it "erroneously released” information about the book that was "incorrect and incomplete." The book title was then changed.

Despite their age gap, Britney and Jamie Lynn were tight pre-conservatorship and often times during. That seemed to change as Britney amped up efforts to be freed from her conservatorship. For the last year, Britney has been oust her dad Jamie, whom she's long been estranged from, as conservator, and was finally successful in September. Her new attorney, the first one she's been able to hire herself, announced plans to terminate the conservatorship completely by the end of the fall.

Things only really changed in late June when Britney broke her silence, alleging conservatorship abuse. In that impassioned statement, she said, "I would honestly like to sue my family, to be totally honest with you. I also would like to be able to share my story with the world, and what they did to me, instead of it being a hush-hush secret to benefit all of them."

Soon after, Jamie Lynn publicly denied that Britney's money was used to buy herself a $1 million beachfront condo.

Now four months after that Britney broke her silence, she's still thinking about a reckoning for her family. Over the weekend, she wrote on social media: "Lord have mercy on my family’s souls if I ever do an interview!!"

According to Entertainment Tonight, Jamie Lynn is very upset about This Is My Brave declining her donation amid the conservatorship chaos.

"Jamie Lynn has been forced to stay silent for years and now she’s being attacked for finally speaking her truth," an insider told the outlet. "People fail to realize that Jamie Lynn has suffered some of the same trauma that Britney has. This isn't Britney OR Jamie Lynn. This is about a family trauma and how it affects each person differently. There is a bigger conversation to be had about supporting every voice."

The person added: "The most upsetting part to her is to see an organization take such a quick and public stand against Jamie Lynn because it only furthers the negative and hurtful narrative against her. She was so excited to support them and their mission and was shocked to see them publicly decline her support after accepting it."

As the conservatorship has played out in recent months, and the family is under scrutiny, Jamie Lynn has limited who is allowed to comment on her social media posts, and she's been more selective of what she shares about her own family. She only posts images of her two kids with their faces blurred.

On Monday night, amid the drama with the charity, Jamie Lynn posted a biblical passage as her apparent statement on the situation.

(Screenshot: This Is Brave)
(Screenshot: Jamie Lynn Spears via Instagram)