Miley Cyrus has spoken about the “guilt and shame” she felt as a result of controversies earlier in her career and how she learned to deal with it.
The artist caused particular uproar in her early twenties with the campaign leading up to her 2013 album ‘Bangerz’, which was seen as an attempt to radically shake off her Disney star image. She infamously twerked against Robin Thicke at that year’s VMA Awards, and appear naked on a demolition ball in the video for her hit single ‘Wrecking Ball’.
During a cover interview with British Vogue, Cyrus admitted she carried around feelings of guilt and shame “for years” afterwards because of “how much controversy and upset I really caused”.
As she grew older, however, she said her perspective changed. “Now that I’m an adult, I realise how harshly I was judged,” she said. “I was harshly judged as a child by adults and now, as an adult, I realise that I would never harshly judge a child.”
Cyrus also made reference to moments when her appearance was scrutinised, such as in her early twenties when a tabloid magazine shared a picture of her acne along with the headline: “A Breakout Year!”
“Right? Like who thought that I was not a person who would be hurt by that? Like I was clearly a 20-year-old girl,” Cyrus said. “Sure, at 20 I was like every 20 year old. You think you’re grown, but now I’m like: ‘Oh, no, I was fully a kid.’”
She went on to say that she knew her decisions with her image a decade ago were going to be controversial. “I was creating attention for myself because I was dividing myself from a character I had played,” she said. “Anyone, when you’re 20 or 21, you have more to prove. ‘I’m not my parents.’ ‘I am who I am’.
She added: “I’m actually not an attention-seeking person, sitting here as a 30-year-old grown woman.”
Cyrus is set to guest on her godmother Dolly Parton‘s forthcoming rock cover of ‘Wrecking Ball’, which will appear on her upcoming album ‘Rockstar’. The album will be released later this year.
They previously teamed up on ‘Rainbowland’ from Cyrus’ 2017 album ‘Younger Now’.
