Film + TV

Miley Cyrus says Hannah Montana gave her body image issues

by Dan MacRae

Miley’s happy being Miley, but she admitted to Marie Claire this month that her time on Hannah Montana wasn’t all cake and rainbows. It was actually a period marked by body dysmorphia, uncomfortability and unrealistic “beauty” expectations.

“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.'” she told the mag. “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 had fucking flippers.”

Miley says the Disney Channel gig triggered anxiety bouts galore (“I’d get hot flashes, feel like I was about to pass up or throw up. It would happen a lot before shows, and I’d have to cancel.”) and left her with a host of body image issues.

“I was told for so long what a girl is supposed to be from being on that show,” the pop performer tells Marie Claire. “I was made to look like someone that I wasn’t, which probably caused some body dysmorphia because I had been made pretty every day for so long, and then when I wasn’t on that show, it was like, Who the fuck am I?”

Miley’s entire chat with Marie Claire is stellar and worth a gander if you’ve got the time.

Elsewhere in the Mileytropolis, why not enjoy this picture from her Instagram page where she’s on the toilet wearing an Andy Warhol inspired dress adorned with Drakes?