On the headline-making Vanity Fair photo of herself being wrapped in a bed sheet: “Here, my parents are thinking they’re seeing a beautiful photograph by a major photographer, and the people of America want to see something dirty in that? It doesn’t make sense to us because [my family] doesn’t look for negativity. But people don’t want to say ‘What a great performance’ or ‘What a great shot.” No one wants to look at something like that and see the positive because it doesn’t sell a magazine.”
On the pressures of being in the spotlight 24/7: “My job is to be a role model, and that’s what I want to do, but my job isn’t to be a parent. My job isn’t to tell your kids how to act or how not to act, because I’m still figuring that out for myself. So to take that away from me is a bit selfish. Your kids are going to make mistakes whether I do or not. That’s just life.”
On leaving LA this summer to film her new movie, The Last Song: “I got on the plane [to Georgia], and I was lying in my mom’s lap and crying and saying, “I’m so happy to be getting out of L.A. [In Tybee, GA] I went out every night with my friends. I did karaoke. I danced. All this stuff would’ve been such a big deal in Los Angeles: Who’s she with? Why is she dancing? I felt so alive and real. It’s so much easier to know who you are when there aren’t a thousand people telling you who they think you are. I felt like I was really figuring myself out. Usually I have someone whispering in my ear, but I was on my own.” (FYI: Miley is dating her on-screen love interest in real life — Liam Hemsworth.)
On having insecurities despite all the adoration: “I used to ask everyone all day, ‘Do I look pretty?’ I probably asked that question about as many times as I blink.” But in Georgia she finally got over it. “It’s not about how because I started feeling beautiful; it’s just because I was comfortable. I was so used to the paparazzi and the cameras and the ‘What are you wearing?’ and having people stare at me.”
Dress pictured below: Ralph Lauren Collection
