14 DAY TRIAL // Miley Cyrus is so far away from her Disney, Hannah Montana image these days that they might as well be 2 different persons. It’s on purpose, she tells the latest issue of Marie Claire: the Miley we see today is the real one, the other was just a product of a PR machine, and bringing it to life “probably caused some body dysmorphia.”
That Miley hates who she was back in the day when she was a Disney star is no secret. Even her father Billy Ray Cyrus once said that she was at her unhappiest when she was seen as one and the same as her on-screen character, Hannah Montana, because Disney cared only about selling a product, not about crushing the souls of those it used to achieve that.
Growing up in the spotlight sucks
That’s the gist of Miley’s newest interview: not only did she have to go through the problematic teenage years in the public eye, but she had to do it while Disney kept telling her who to be.
No wonder she was eager to break free when her contract for Hannah Montana was up; no wonder she felt like rebelling.
“From the time I was 11, it was, ‘You're a pop star! That means you have to be blonde, and you have to have long hair, and you have to put on some glittery tight thing’,” Miley recalls. “Meanwhile, I'm this fragile little girl playing a 16-year-old in a wig and a ton of makeup. It was like Toddlers & Tiaras. I was made to look like someone that I wasn't.”
In time, this led to identity issues, anxiety and bouts of depression. Surrounded by so many people telling her how to look and how to act, Miley never got the chance to find out who she really was.
Miley is all grown up now
In another one of her latest interviews, Miley identified as genderqueer and bisexual. She didn’t exactly come out to say these things, but she said as much in other words, while rejecting labels by principle.
She tells Marie Claire now that she never identified with the girl she was made into by Disney: that one was perfect to sell makeup products and land other “girlie” endorsements, but the real Miley has no intention of selling lipgloss. She wants to “save the world,” she says.