Music

Miley Cyrus says she’s no longer that girl who twerked against Robin Thicke

We’ve known Miley Cyrus almost all her life. Her long-term stint as Disney’s Hannah Montana catapulted her to instant stardom. But what fans didn’t realize was that behind the wigs and the glitter, there was a real girl struggling to grow up, just like everybody else. After she was done with the show, Miley transformed herself overnight, becoming this party girl who was almost always naked, blunt in hand.

After the release of her album, Bangerz, Miley went on tour. She had said at the time that even she began noticing that things had changed. The massive crowds that used to gather to see her perform live, now diluted to around 2,000 people per night, all wanting to get high and not focus on the music.

Today, she is a complete revolution from those days. She spends most of her time with her family, in her studio or with her many pets. She just released her single, Malibu followed by a deeply personal song, Inspired that has her old fans giving her the positivity that she needs.

Miley Cyrus is the cover star for Harper’s Bazaar August issue. The images of her have been styled by Miley, and is stripped of any of that glitter, minus any tongue and is just refreshing. Here are excerpts from her interview in the upcoming issue.

“I feel really kind of far away from that person. I just want people to see that this is who I am right now. I’m not saying I’ve never been myself. Who I was on the last record was really who I am. It’s just myself has been a lot of different people because I change a lot.”

“I think I’m just figuring out who I am at such a rapid pace that it’s hard for me to keep up with myself.”

Miley talks about her days in Hannah Montana. “There’s so much I don’t remember about being a child entertainer because it was so much to keep in my brain. It’s like anything when you are in it. I didn’t realize how much pressure I was under and how that shaped me until, like, this year.”

Remember that infamous MTV Music Awards where she twerked against Robin Thicke and that foam finger? Miley received plenty of backlash, considering she has an ocean of young fans. “People were so shocked by some of the things that I did. It should be more shocking that when I was 11 or 12, I was put in full hair and makeup, a wig, and told what to wear by a group of mostly older men. I didn’t want to become any sort of man hater because I love all humans; I am a humanitarian.”

Thanks to Miley’s public persona, and her own promotion of a more provocative star, her image began to change. “It became something that was expected of me. I didn’t want to show up to photo shoots and be the girl who would get my tits out and stick out my tongue… It got to a point where I did feel sexualized.”

And finally, Miley has a message for her fans: “It’s really scary sometimes, someone saying, ‘This is who I am’. People have known me since I was so young, they think they know me. I heard so many comments like, ‘We just want Miley back’. But you can’t tell me who that is. I’m right here.”