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Directed by Julie Anne Robinson. With Miley Cyrus, Liam Hemsworth, Greg Kinnear, Bobby Coleman. A rebellious girl is sent to a Southern beach town for the summer to stay with her father. Through their mutual love of music, the estranged duo learn to reconnect.

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Her queer identity contradicts her appearances in films as a very typical 'girl next door' in roles with very structured and typical gender conventions.

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The term 'chick' connotes solidarity and empowerment, alike to Miley's involvement with the queer community. She acts as the 'female of male desire',

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Miley Cyrus remains true to her musical roots, her 3 starring films are musically based. (LOL, The Last Song, Hannah Montana Movie)

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Reflects the new angle of women in the popular culture. Films directed at female audiences, recognising an increase in recognition of women

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From An Affair to Remember to Legally Blonde, "chick flicks" have long been both championed and vilified by women and men, scholars and popular audiences. Like other forms of "chick culture," which the editors define as a group of mostly American and British popular culture media forms focused primarily on twenty- to thirtysomething, middle-class-and frequently college-educated-women, chick flicks have been accused of reinscribing traditional attitudes and reactionary roles for women.

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Typical convention of a female film star 

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Typical convention of a female film star 

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Family orientated, domestic role within a family. The Cyrus family a marketing technique within celebrity culture.

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Not typically the role as the mother but throughout interviews and evident here family is always at the forefront of her life. This is also evident through the Hannah Montana franch

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Carpool Karaoke: The Series - The Cyrus Family 3/4 - 29/8/2017

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"She doesn't let age define her"1: Sexuality and motherhood in recent "middle-aged chick flicks"

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This article explores Hollywood's recent representation of older women as having a relatively more open and fluid sexuality than they were portrayed as having in earlier decades. While seemingly...

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Miley took her changing identity to become a contemporary young film star, featuring in chick flicks focusing on the male gaze.

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Cyrus has matured as a celebrity, using her fame to help others.

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She shows her love for music and love in helping people by coming a judge at the voice.

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Reveals every angle of her reflects a time in her life.

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Miley Cyrus Explains Why the Bangerz Era Wasn't a Phase

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Miley Cyrus was on a joyful throwback photo tweeting spree Sunday afternoon (April 29) when she resurfaced a 10-year-old scandal for which she once expressed regret. She is now taking back that apology.

The singer posted the cover of a 2008 issue of the New York Post, which ran the sensational headline "MILEY'S SHAME," followed by the lede "TV's 'Hannah' apologizes for near-nude pic."

"IM NOT SORRY," Cyrus tweeted Sunday. "Fuck YOU."

IM NOT SORRY

Fuck YOU #10yearsago pic.twitter.com/YTJmPHKwLX
- Miley Ray Cyrus (@MileyCyrus) April 29, 2018

In 2008, at the age of 15, Cyrus worked with renowned photographer Annie Leibovitz for a feature in Vanity Fair. One of her portraits shows the young star, then famous for her role on the Disney Channel's Hannah Montana, wrapped in what looks to be just a satin sheet, with the skin of her back exposed.

In a caption for the photo published in that Vanity Fair interview, Cyrus did not seem fazed by the pose potentially being seen as controversial: "No, I mean I had a big blanket on," she was quoted as saying. "And I thought, 'This looks pretty, and really natural.' I think it's really artsy."

But when a media frenzy ensued, Cyrus did issue an apology as Disney attempted to protect her wholesome image.

"Unfortunately, as the article suggests, a situation was created to deliberately manipulate a 15-year-old in order to sell magazines," a Disney spokesperson said at the time, while Cyrus released a statement of her own: "I took part in a photo shoot that was supposed to be 'artistic,' and now, seeing the photographs and reading the story, I feel so embarrassed. I never intended for any of this to happen and I apologize to my fans who I care so deeply about."

Before bringing all of this up, though, Cyrus was just tweeting cute childhood pictures of herself "being extra AF" and "feeling myself." Take a trip down memory lane with her below.

Being extra AF! Thanks mom! @tishcyrus pic.twitter.com/1iiBnxjY3O
- Miley Ray Cyrus (@MileyCyrus) April 29, 2018

A picture says 1000 words... but this one only says two... FUCK YOU pic.twitter.com/57JJZIDCbV
- Miley Ray Cyrus (@MileyCyrus) April 29, 2018

Feeling myself... I'll never forget the day I got this shirt from Fred Segal pic.twitter.com/jpQ3rAocHO
- Miley Ray Cyrus (@MileyCyrus) April 29, 2018

Sooo Harpers Bazaar pic.twitter.com/XFjuIdfiHB
- Miley Ray Cyrus (@MileyCyrus) April 29, 2018

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Miley Cyrus Retracts Apology for Controversial Vanity Fair Portrait From 2008

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Miley Cyrus was on a joyful throwback photo tweeting spree Sunday afternoon (April 29) when she resurfaced a 10-year-old scandal for which she once expressed regret. She is now taking back that apology. The singer posted the cover of a 2008 issue of the New York Post , which ran the sensational headline "MILEY'S SHAME," followed by the lede "TV's 'Hannah' apologizes for near-nude pic."

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Repeated cases of too much pressure being placed on Disney stars. It causes an obvious rebel in many cases due to the stereotypes they are categorised under.

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TROUBLED singer Demi Lovato was rushed to hospital last night with a suspected drug overdose... making the ex-Disney star the latest veteran of the entertainment network to run into serious trouble.

The 21-year-old former Camp Rock actress first checked into rehab when she was just 18 years old, and at one stage she reportedly took cocaine several times a day - even smuggling it onto to planes rather than go without her fix.

She managed to stay clean for six years but revealed she had relapsed in recent weeks in a song called Sober, which has become particularly poignant now.

And Demi is far from the former Disney child star to go off the rails in adulthood, with Shia LaBeouf, Britney Spears and Lindsay Lohan (yes, that's where they really started) among the stars who struggled after finding fame with the network.

Other child stars, like Macaulay Caulkin and the Jacksons, have also endured public meltdowns after reaching adulthood, but there seems to be a high proportion of ex-Disney stars to suffer the same fate.

Although it's in no way suggested that Disney itself is responsible for what happened to the stars, the fact that many had early careers at the entertainment giant has led people to nickname it the 'Disney Curse'.

So why do so many former young performers have problems further down the line?

Psychologist Dr Linda Papadopoulos told Sun Online that part of this could be to do with the huge pressure placed on child stars before they are ready to handle it.

She said: "Having fame means your self awareness is amplified, and once you've reached a certain level of fame and notoriety, it's gets very validating.

"When that fame begins to fade away, it's very hard and you see that as a rejection of who you are and your work and your character.

"You can't ever go back to being normal because you will always have that notoriety; you always have that expectation. It's hard for you to navigate social interactions."

Dr Linda also points to the strained relationships many child stars (including Demi, Britney and Lindsay) have with their parents.

She said: "A lot of famous kids have had public fall outs with their parents. The parents, whose main job it is to ensure mental and physical health of their kids, are also tasked with ensuring their kids work and make a lot of money. Sometimes the two are incompatible."

And another aspect is the vacuum that is created when child stars grow out of their roles while still being associated with them.

Linda says: "They had an identity they were able to profit from and get a sense of validation from. Once that changes, you don't have that same value and you feel it.

"And that is why we see young stars becoming hyper-sexualised - they want to be taken seriously as adults.

"They're like 'look I was a young star but now I'm doing a photoshoot in my underwear' so you see the need to be acknowledged as adults and having value in their own right.

"We love young kids when they're little and on TV but this weird thing happens where we feel uncomfortable about them growing up."

In Demi Lovato's case, the star first started doing drugs aged 17, blaming her addict and "abusive" father as the reason she ended up getting hooked.

But she is far from the only ex-Disney actor to struggle with the trappings of fame after leaving the network.

Britney Spears

Once a Mouseketeer in The Mickey Mouse Club, Britney is now best known for being one of the world's biggest pop sensations.

But in 2007, after a divorce from Kevin Federline, Britney endured a famous public meltdown which saw her shave her head and move into rehab.

A friend told E! news: "All she wanted was to raise a family and find pleasure in the small things... she needed an escape from her celebrity existence."

Britney was soon out again but, desperate and cut off from seeing her children, things didn't improve until she was stretchered out of her home and taken to hospital by her mum.

Today, she has left the buzz-cut era well behind her and is a a happy and healthy star once again - as everyone hopes Demi Lovato will be.

Zac Efron

Best known for playing Troy in High School Musical, Zac Effron was 18 when he became a household name.

But after leaving Disney, he too ended up in rehab.

In 2014, he sought help for an alleged cocaine addiction, and has since claimed that it was the social aspects of his celebrity life which drove him down that dark road.

When he appeared on Running Wild with Bear Grylls, he said of his young fame: "You know it was just so quick, it's shocking, you know what I mean.

"The challenging part was never the work, it was sort of the in between work, the social aspects outside of it.

"You spend a lot of time in your house going crazy, you know pretty soon you need a social lubricant."

Miley Cyrus

The poster girl for post-Disney transformations, the world was stunned to watch as Hannah Montana star Miley ditched her PC-persona in favour of a far more sexualised stage presence.

The crotch-grabbing, twerking, weed-smoking Miley Cyrus of today is a far cry from the innocent 13-year-old actor everyone knew from the Disney channel.

And although she came off far better than many of her fellow child stars, Miley has been very vocal about the lasting effects of becoming famous so young.

"It's a lot to put on a kid: to have them have to get their makeup done and then also balance school and then also have me dress up in a wig," she has said.

Miley has also revealed that it was hard for her to be famous both as her Hannah Montana character and as herself, as a singer in her own right.

"I think that's probably what's a little bit wrong with me now," she added. "I mark that up to doing some extreme damage in my psyche as an adult person."

While filming, 12-hour days became the norm and, as a child, she developed anxiety attacks and nausea from the stresses of work.

She also told 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."

Lee Thompson Young

One of the most tragic stories of past Disney actors, Lee Thompson Young started his acting career in 1998 series The Famous Jett Jackson, when he was just 15, and then appeared in the film Johnny Tsunami a year later.

He went on star in detective drama Rizzoli & Isles, but he failed to turn up for filming in August 2013.

When police were called to check on him in his LA apartment, he was found dead.

The 29-year-old had been battling depression before his death, and had also been diagnosed with bipolar disorder.

Shia LaBeouf

Shia LaBeouf is another ex-Disney star who went through a troublesome period when he left the network.

The Even Stevens actor was arrested back in 2014 and later charged with disorderly conduct and criminal trespass at Studio 54 theatre.

After his arrest, the 32-year-old joined an outpatient programme for alcoholism, and has since staged a number of bizarre public appearances which have left fans concerned about his well-being.

In 2014, he appeared at the premier of his movie Nymphomaniac wearing a paper bag on his head which had the words "I am not famous anymore" scrawled in large letters over his face.

Later that same year he spent a night in jail after being disruptive while watching a Broadway show, and was arrested again in 2017 for disorderly conduct, obstruction and public drunkenness.

A video which emerged of his racist rant at police officers at the time pushed the former Disney star to apologise on Twitter, where he described the incident as a "new low" and said he was newly committed to sobriety.

Lindsay Lohan

After modelling as a child, Lindsay made her acting breakthrough in 1998 Disney film The Parent Trap, when she was just 12.

She followed up with a string of high-profile film appearances, including Mean Girls, before returning to Disney in 2005 with Herbie: Fully Loaded.

However, her life has been peppered with legal run-ins and controversies ever since a booze-fuelled car crash in 2007, and she has had a notably sour relationship with her father which may have contributed to her turmoil.

Lowlights include the party girl's subsequent hour-long stay in prison for cocaine possession and drink driving, and when she was fitted with an alcohol-monitoring device as a condition of her bail.

In 2010 she then earned a two-week prison sentence for failing to attend her court-ordered weekly alcohol education classes, and eventually ended up in rehab after leaving jail.

Selena Gomez

Selena Gomez was one of Disney's most recognisable faces, starring in Wizards of Waverly Place and the Princess Protection Programme.

But when she grew up, she too had a rocky ride.

Gomez, 26, spent two weeks in a rehab facility back in early 2014 at treatment centre in Arizona which specialises in treating young people with addiction and trauma problems.

Her representative later revealed the star was suffering from Lupus, an autoimmune disease, and that she entered rehab for chemotherapy to treat the illness.

A source previously claimed that Selena also had other issues when she checked into the treatment facility, according to Radar Online.

Selena Gomez made a huge name for herself as a Disney child star. A source said: "Her friends and family became increasingly worried that there might be a serious problem with Selena.

"Particularly, her parents. The partying was, at times, wild.

"They wanted to help her-and they very much encouraged her to go to rehab. Others very close to her also urged her to seek professional help."

She was also reportedly dabbling with marijuana and was experimenting with prescription drugs such as Xanax and Ambien - and ended up back in rehab in September 2016, after a high-profile spat with former flame Justin Bieber.
Linda's podcast is called The Psychology Behind with Dr Linda Papadopoulos and is available from iTunes, Audioboom and all usual podcast outlets.

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From Selena Gomez to Miley Cyrus - why so many former child Disney stars have suffered mental health breakdowns, eating disorders and suicide attempts

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TROUBLED singer Demi Lovato was rushed to hospital last night with a suspected drug overdose... making the ex-Disney star the latest veteran of the entertainment network to run into serious tro...

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Alike to Britney Spears Cyrus provides an example of how the pressures of the limelight eventually take their toll.

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In the Limelight and Under the Microscope

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This timely collection explores the politics of female celebrity across a range of contemporary and historical media contexts. Amidst concerns about the apparent 'decline' in the currency of modern fame ('famous for being famous'), as well as debates about the shifting parameters of public/private visibility, it is female celebrities who are positioned as the most active discursive terrain.

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A film star role stereotypical of the young girl. In love, in a chick flick

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LOL Official Trailer: Miley Cyrus, Ashley Greene and Demi Moore Romance In The Youtube Age

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A morally justifiable use of her celebrity persona.

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Cyrus shows different degrees of authenticity throughout her career, but in the most recent years shows the most accurate depictio

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Miley believes to be portraying her most authentic self, reflecting the time in her life when she was experimenting with different approaches to who she was.

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Never felt more me in my whole life ❤
— Miley Cyrus (@MileyCyrus) August 13, 2012

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Post feminist popular culture produce anxieties about the premature influence on younger girls.

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This collection of original essays looks at the way in which experiences and representations of femininity are changing, and explores the possibilities for producing 'new' femininities in the twenty-f

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Miley returns back to her authentic country girl roots 

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Miley returns back to her authentic country girl roots 

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The contrasting album covers show transgressive stages she experienced throughout life. The highly controversial stage in comparison referencing a struggle in her lif

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A different angle of the childhood star, showing her transition into a woman in a way fans didn't expect from the star. Seen as too youthful.

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Disney representations categorise Miley as an innocent, wholesome stereotypical girl model. A toxic depiction of the gender stereotypes within Disney and the lack of agency the stars had through their management.

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Her struggles with identity in the media further change her stereotype away from the Disney image. The star becomes real and current, a role model to a new breed of society and an explanation of her obsession with sexualisation.

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Post feminist culture and the 'girlhood' stereotype references a similar transition Cyrus went through. A role model that breaks the mold as admirable for the younger audience.

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Reading celebrities/narrating selves: 'tween' girls, Miley Cyrus and the good/bad girl binary: Celebrity Studies: Vol 6, No 4

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Celebrities feature prominently in the media and popular cultural landscape of 'tween'-aged girls. While there has been much speculation about the potential influence of celebrities such as Miley Cyrus and Vanessa Hudgens on 'tween' girls, particularly with respect to 'growing up too fast' and becoming 'sexy too soon', research with tweens is lacking.

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Creating widespread anxiety about the sexualisation of young celebrities as role models for children.

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An common example of a 'sexuality makeover' from childhood to adulthood.

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Alike to Spears Miley's famous VMA performance revealed the ground breaking and most public contrast to her youthful innocent stereotype attained on Hannah Montana, creating a lot of controversy around her star image and influence.

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In the Limelight and Under the Microscope

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This timely collection explores the politics of female celebrity across a range of contemporary and historical media contexts. Amidst concerns about the apparent 'decline' in the currency of modern fame ('famous for being famous'), as well as debates about the shifting parameters of public/private visibility, it is female celebrities who are positioned as the most active discursive terrain.

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If, as Gill describes, ‘one of the most striking aspects of postfeminist media culture is its obsessive preoccupation with the body’ (2007: 149) Miley Cyrus shows this excessively.  Post-Montana Cyrus mobilises a chaotic disruption of this regulatory control.

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Pansexual - her struggles with identity 

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Pansexual - her struggles with identity 

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Public queer figure. 'Cyrus radically disrupts the heteronormative discourses of sexualisation.'

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Miley Cyrus Talks Coming Out as Pansexual: I Didn't Understand My Own Gender and My Own Sexuality

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The Voice coach named one of Variety's Power of Women stars

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Vouchercloud announced parents voted Miley Cyrus the worst role model for their children in 2015, when once she was seen as an aspirational one.

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This works to put attention on female subjectivity in public cultures. Producing debates about gender, sexuality, radicalisation and the profit driven music industry. Queer feminist possibilities. Becomes an unstable and disruptive figure of young femininity in popular culture.

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Abstract

Miley Cyrus has increasingly occupied debates at the centre of feminist engagements with popular culture. Evoking concerns around young women and 'sexualisation', Cyrus emerges as a convergent signifier of sexualised media content and the girl-at-risk. As Cyrus is repeatedly invoked in these debates, she comes to function as the bad object of young femininity. Arguing, however, that Cyrus troubles the sexualisation thesis in the provocations of her creative practice, I suggest that this contested media figure exceeds the frames through which she is read. Thus, I ask: what kinds of insights might be possible if we were to transform the terms on which we approach this figure? Considering a selection of the images and performances that constitute the Cyrus archive, this article proposes a reading of Cyrus as performative provocation. Mobilising an existing sensibility of queer feminist struggle, Cyrus emerges as a disruptive, albeit contradictory, figure. Questions of privilege, limit and possibility emerge in this discussion, as well as what constitutes feminist struggle.

References

Blackman, Lisa (2009) 'The Re-Making of Sexual Kinds: Queer Subjects and the Limits of Representation'. Journal of Lesbian Studies 13(2): 122-135. |
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Cyrus, Miley (2011) 'I'm the Bad Girl for Growing Up, I'm the Bad Girl for Living My Dreams, No Matter What, I'm the Bad Girl'. Twitter [deleted tweet].
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Epstein, Debbie, Mary Jane, Kehily, Emma, Renold (2012) 'Culture, Policy and the Un/marked Child: Fragments of the Sexualisation Debates'. Gender and Education 24(3): 249-254. |
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Ferreday, Debra (2014) 'The Feminine Art of Failure: Queering Feminist Spectatorship'. Quaderns de Psicologia 16(1): 141-152.
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Jackson, Sue, Tiina, Vares (2011) 'Media "Sluts": "Tween' Girls" Negotiations of Postfeminist Sexual Subjectivities in Popular Culture'. In: Rosalind, Gill, Christina, Scharff (eds) New Femininities: Postfeminism, Neoliberalism, and Subjectivity, London: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 134-146. |
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Jackson, Sue, Sarah Goddard, Sophie, Cossens (2016) 'The Importance of [Not] Being Miley: Girls Making Sense of Miley Cyrus'. European Journal of Cultural Studies 19(1): 1-18.
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Miley Cyrus Videos (2016) 'Miley Cyrus and Her Dead Petz LIVE (HD & HQ Audio) - The Milky Milky Milk Tour'. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIBaVCvM02c (accessed 6 March 2016).
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Poulson-Bryant, Scott (2013) '"Put Some Bass in Your Walk": Notes on Queerness, Hip Hop, and the Spectacle of the Undoable'. Palimpsest: A Journal on Women, Gender, and the Black International 2(2): 214-225.
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Schneider, Rebecca (1997) The Explicit Body in Performance, London: Routledge. |
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Telegraph (2010) 'David Cameron Promises to Protect Children From "Inappropriate Sexualisation"'. Telegraph, 18 February. Available at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/david-cameron/7262007/David-Cameron-promises-to-protect-children-from-inappropriate-sexualisation.html (accessed 1 March 2017).
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Sexualisation, or the queer feminist provocations of Miley Cyrus

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Abstract Miley Cyrus has increasingly occupied debates at the centre of feminist engagements with popular culture. Evoking concerns around young women and 'sexualisation', Cyrus emerges as a convergent signifier of sexualised media content and the girl-at-risk. As Cyrus is repeatedly invoked in these debates, she comes to function as the bad object of young femininity.

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She is an empowering individual, more than a celebrity but a role model and humanitarian.

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Miley Cyrus - One Love Manchester (Full Speech)

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'Miley - mania': 'I want to be memorable'

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'Miley - mania': 'I want to be memorable'

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She was a celebrity that wanted to turn heads, enjoyed fame, wasn't suffering from it but confident in playing with it. Although seemingly rational, thought through messages

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Scott Gries/Invision/AP

2013 was a wild time for Miley Cyrus.

Her engagement to Liam Hemsworth had been called off, bringing a temporary end to their four-year relationship. Her music video for new single "We Can't Stop," her first in three years, introduced the world to a new era in the young star's career-one of untethered, rampant hedonism. And her now-infamous performance at the MTV Video Music Awards-you know, the one with the twerking in Robin Thicke's crotch-only seemed to solidify the notion that Miley couldn't, in fact, be tamed.

And then, on October 4, 2013, Bangerz, her fourth studio album, dropped and things really got weird.

"I want to be memorable," she told the Daily Mail immediately after the release. "That's what my fans want too. Everyone's talking about me, waiting to see what I'm doing next. And, yeah, I like things to be bright and colorful and fun, but then I make 'Wrecking Ball,' which is darker and grey. And then I'll maybe go back to running around being crazy. I want to keep people guessing."

Mission accomplished.

RCA

As 2013 became 2014, Miley-mania was in full swing. MTV named her its Artist of the Year. In February, the Bangerz Tour kicked off, literally, with the former Hannah Montana star sliding down a giant approximation of her wagging tongue, sticking out of her mouth, as had become her signature look. "People have made me seem like a character. So now I'm just enjoying playing a character of myself. People's mouths drop when I dance, but my friends are like, 'You dance like that in the kitchen!' I'm always pretty much joking," she explained in an interview with that April. "In the show, I do this really horrible wave, like the Queen. It's so dumb, because everyone waves back at me like that! It's almost like abusing the fact that I'm a little bit of a trendsetter."

Meanwhile, the outside world wondered whether the 22-year-old had gone mad, become a marketing genius, or some combination thereof. There were thinkpieces galore about her provocations, her alleged cultural appropriation and exploitation of black culture. It was the very portrait of a girl becoming a woman, exploring who she was, what she stood for, who she was attracted to, the whole nine yards; only it was happening for the whole world to see.

After a year spent touring, the experimentation continued into 2015. Though she never confirmed it, she entered into some sort of romantic relationship with model Stella Maxwell. She launched the Happy Hippie Foundation, dedicated to the causes of youth homelessness, the LGBTQ community and other vulnerable populations. She hosted the VMAs, where she both got called out by Nicki Minaj for running her mouth and dropped a head-scratching free SoundCloud called Miley Cyrus & Her Dead Petz. By September, the fun had stopped. The album, a psychedelic collaboration with the Flaming Lips, left fans wondering what was going on; the tour, complete with her strap-on dildo, even more so.

And so a retreat from this particular spotlight began.

She moved to Malibu and adopted some pigs. She immersed herself in her philanthropy. She plotted a return to TV, joining NBC's The Voice in its 11th season while also taking a role in Woody Allen's ill-fated Amazon Prime series, Crisis in Six Scenes. She got back together with Liam. And, perhaps most importantly, she did some reflecting.

"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," she told Harper's Bazaar in July 2017, recalling that period of Bangerz aftermath.

Kevin Mazur/WireImage

"People were so shocked by some of the things that I did," she continued. "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...It's no wonder that a lot of people lose their way and lose who they really are because they always have people telling them who to be."

By the time she took her seat in this big red spinning chairs when her first of two non-consecutive seasons of The Voice debuted in the fall of 2016, the world saw a more demure Miley. It was a Miley who was no longer looking to provoke, a Miley who had changed once more.

"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. In the beginning, it was kind of like saying, 'F--k you. Girls should be able to have this freedom or whatever.' But it got to a point where I did feel sexualized," she told Harper's.

And as tends to happen for trendsetting provocateur, the shtick had been co-opted by way too many copycats. "Even at the Met Gala, everyone had their boobs out, everyone had their ass out, so what's punk about that now?" she continued. "It's more punk actually for me to not."

As she began to ready new music, she set out to distance herself from her past persona even further. Outside of professional obligations, she pulled out of the spotlight, taking several self-imposed "media blackouts" and making sure her personal life was no longer part of the story. After all, the engagement was back on. What else was there to report? "I needed to change so much. And changing with someone else not changing like that is too hard," she said of the time apart in a 2017 interview. "Suddenly you're like, "I don't recognize you anymore." We had to re-fall for each other."

RCA Records

With the release of first single "Malibu," followed by "Younger Now," the title track off her sixth studio album, a softer Miley arrived, a more accessible one, one you might encounter on a hike up in Laurel Canyon, gathering wildflowers. "I wanted to be more straightforward," she told NME in an interview published the day Younger Now was released at the end of September. "I did it in a less aggressive way where it was subliminally allowing all audiences to be a part of it and enjoy it. From the outside, like you said, Dead Petz wasn't a record for everyone... I think it ended up shutting some doors in the way of people making themselves less mentally available to listen. They think, 'I'm already pissed off so I'm not listening to that, she's crazy.'"

Sadly, not a lot of people were ready to tune back in. Younger Now failed to return Miley to her Bangerz chart glory, debuting at No. 5 and only moving 33,000 units total. Naturally, there would be no tour.

While she's had to go back to the drawing board in terms of her recording career, with Mark Ronson confirming this summer that new music is in the works, Miley's once again gone underground a bit. Her Instagram account remains empty and her Twitter hasn't been updated since July. And when it had? The focus was more on her activism than her artistry, which makes sense considering the biggest lesson she learned from the whole Bangerz era.

"Not only was culture changed, but my life and career were changed forever, and almost defined in that moment. It inspired me to use my platform for something much bigger," she told Wonderland earlier this year. "If the world is going to focus on me and what I am doing, then what I am doing should be impactful and it should be great."

Will this next era of her career, whatever it may be, follow suit and be great as well? That remains to be seen. But one thing's for sure: It certainly won't be boring. Not if she's just being Miley.

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Why Miley Cyrus Completely Flipped Her Life Upside Down After All the Bangerz Madness

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Scott Gries/Invision/AP 2013 was a wild time for Miley Cyrus . Her engagement to Liam Hemsworth had been called off, bringing a temporary end to their four-year relationship. Her music video for new single "We Can't Stop," her first in three years, introduced the world to a new era in the young star's career-one of untethered, rampant hedonism.

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Miley Cyrus hired manager Larry Rudolph who also represented Britney Spears in her 'Trainwreck' phase as a young female celebrity.

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Rudolph has also represented music artists besides Spears such as Avril Lavigne, Miley Cyrus, Will.i.am, Nicole Scherzinger, Justin Timberlake, 98 Degrees, Nick Lachey, DJ Pauly D, Backstreet Boys, O-Town, Toni Braxton, Swizz Beats, Kim Petras and DMX.

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This album and tour represented self empowering messages and social activism, but also a controversial time that suggested Miley's emotional struggle and need to breakthrough from her Disney stereotype.

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Miley joined this foundation and helps to support the LGBQT community, the homelessness and other vulnerable communities.

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Miley and Liams relationship has been up and down for 9 years. The emotional journey Miley experienced is reflected in her music and has influenced her behaviour. She is now married to the star.

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Fans are still gushing over the relationship between Miley Cyrus and her new husband Liam Hemsworth. It's the perfect love story for anyone who has ever lost someone they loved and hoped to get them back. And it doesn't hurt that the couple looks amazing together.

But how did this unlikely pair come to be? Let's take a look down memory lane.

The Beginning

Flash all the way back to 2009. Cyrus and Hemsworth were both cast to be leads in Nicholas Spark's movie The Last Song. While filming the movie, the two began dating according to rumors from castmates and people on set. Though we now know that the relationship rumors were true, at the time both Cyrus and Hemsworth were pretty mum's the word about the whole thing.

In 2010, they went sort of public together, attending The Last Song premiere with one another.

After the event, the two went their seperate ways but then reunited a month later over milk and cookies, according to PEOPLE.

By 2012, the two were an official item, attending the occasional event together. Eventually, rumors started to swirl that maybe an engagement was in the works. But Miley was quick to jump on Twitter and shut those rumors down.

"I'm not engaged," she tweeted. "I've worn this same ring on this finger since November! People just wanna find something to talk about! It's a topaz people!"

Fast forward a few months and Cyrus was singing a very different song.

She confirmed her engagement to PEOPLE in June.

"I'm so happy to be engaged and look forward to a life of happiness with Liam," she said at the time.

Cyrus was only 19 and Hemsworth was 22.

The Split

Shortly after her engagement and the release of her album Bangerz, Cyrus began going out in public without her engagement ring. This left fans wondering if the wedding had been called off and if the two were even still together.

In March, Cyrus tweeted that the wedding was still on.

"I am so sick of LA," she wrote. "And sick of the lies that come with it. I didn't call off my wedding. Taking a break from social media. #draining."

In April, a source told PEOPLE that the wedding had been postponed.

"They're still engaged and living together," the source said. "They just realized that there is no rush with the wedding and that it's better that they wait a bit."

In September, Cyrus unfollowed her fiance on Twitter before reps for the couple confirmed that the engagement was officially over.

"I don't think I realized what 19 truly is, and I got engaged at 19, and I definitely wouldn't change being engaged. It was so fun wearing a fat rock for a few years," Cyrus said to Barbara Walters in Barbara Walters Presents: The 10 Most Fascinating People of 2013. "But now, I just feel like I can actually be happy."

The Reunion

The couple stayed separated until 2016 when they were seen together at a music festival in Australia.

Shortly after the festival, Cyrus began wearing her ring again and Hemsworth confirmed that the two were back together.

"Of course it was hard, man," Hemsworth said of the breakup to GQ in an interview. "But at the time we were going in different directions, and it's just what needed to happen. We were both super young, and it was a good decision at the time-we both needed that."

The Wedding

Over the Christmas weekend of 2018, Hemsworth and Cyrus had a private wedding at their home in Tennessee. They only invited friends and family to their intimate ceremony.
Read more: Miley Cyrus Had a Strange Request for Liam Hemsworth on Their Wedding Day Check out The Cheat Sheet on Facebook!

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Miley Cyrus and Liam Hemsworth's Relationship History

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Fans are still gushing over the relationship between Miley Cyrus and her new husband Liam Hemsworth. It's the perfect love story for anyone who has ever lost someone they loved and hoped to get them back. And it doesn't hurt that the couple looks amazing together.

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An emotional rendition publically connoting her attempt to break away from the solid walls that Disney had put up around her life, a symbol of breaking free.

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Miley Cyrus - Wrecking Ball (Official Video)

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Miley's biggest role and breakthrough into fame was her role as Hannah Montana on Disney Channel. The series itself aims to mimic the balance Miley must face in both her personal persona and her celebrity persona, but ultimately provides an example of the difficulties Miley had in escaping from the spotlight and becoming a women.

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Hannah Montana and Miley Cyrus: 'becoming' a woman, 'becoming' a star

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The beginning of the twenty-first century saw a vast expansion of media aimed at the pre-adolescent female consumer demographic. Through an analysis of Hannah Montana, and in particular its lead character Miley Stewart/Hannah Montana and star Miley Cyrus, this article argues that tween popular culture uses celebrity as an allegory for growing up female.