Miley Cyrus: Being on ‘Hannah Montana’ “Probably Caused Some Body Dysmorphia”

More than four years since Miley Cyrus ended her four-season run playing a teenage pop star on Hannah Montana, the singer admits that her time on the show first introduced her to the issue of beauty standards.

Covering the September issue of Marie Claire, the former Disney star opened up to the magazine about how she came to question her physical appearance after years of being “told for so long what a girl is supposed to be from being on that show.”

“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 said. “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 f—ing flippers.”

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Cyrus admitted that she began to develop body-image issues from how she was portrayed falsely on the Disney Channel series, telling the magazine, “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 f— am I?’ “

She added, “When you look at retouched, perfect photos, you feel like shit. They lighten black girls’ skin. They smooth out wrinkles. Even when I get stuck on Instagram wondering, ‘Why don’t I look like that?’ it’s a total bummer. It’s crazy what people have decided we’re all supposed to be.”

Despite societal pressure, the pop singer told Marie Claire she won’t be conforming to traditional beauty standards.

“I’m probably never going to be the face of a traditional beauty company unless they want a weed-smoking, liberal-ass freak,” she said. “But my dream was never to sell lip gloss. My dream is to save the world.”