Miley Cyrus says she probably had body dysmorphia during "Hannah Montana"
Miley Cyrus might seem like someone who doesn't care what other people think now, but the pop star told Marie Claire she wasn't always so confident.
The former Disney star said that being on "Hannah Montana" gave her body-image issues.
"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.'"
Cyrus said the show messed with her identity so much that she believes she might have suffered from body dysmorphia from playing Montana.
"I was told for so long what a girl is supposed to be from being on that show," she said. "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?"
Cyrus, who told the magazine she is now friends with Caitlyn Jenner, implied that she was deeply unhappy during her "Montana" years.
She said she suffered from anxiety attacks and worked 12-hour days that were exhausting and challenging: "Everything happened to me on that set." She added that she got her first period on set and cried out of embarrassment.
Cyrus said she still thinks a lot about body image and the media's portrayal of women. She said she'll "probably never" be the face of a conventional beauty brand and that she gets hung up on Photoshopped advertisements.
"When you look at retouched, perfect photos, you feel like s***," she said. "It's a total bummer. It's crazy what people have decided we're all supposed to be."
What is Cyrus' ultimate goal? "My dream is to save the world," she told the magazine.