Miley Cyrus isn’t as tough and carefree as she seems. In fact, she’s struggled with body confidence just like the rest of Us.
During an Instagram live stream with Demi Lovato on Tuesday, March 17, the 27-year-old opened up about body insecurities she dealt with for years following her infamous 2013 VMA performance.
She explained that there was about a three-year period where she wouldn’t wear shorts or skirts on stage after haters dragged her for how she looks, comparing her to a turkey.
“I was just so skinny and so pasty and they kept putting me next to this turkey and I was feeling so bad on myself that I did not wear a bikini for like two years and no one thought that would ever make me feel some type of way.”
She continued, “Like we were talking about, memes can be so much fun but they can also just be so hurtful. Because memes can be funny but when it’s about you, it is just so not funny. And people made like these GIFs and that was just such a wakeup call to me on wanting to use my platform for a bigger purpose.”
This was what then fueled the hit-maker to establish her foundation, Happy Hippie, which is a nonprofit that helps young people fight injustices, from LGBTQ issues to homelessness to other vulnerable situations.
“I just needed something bigger than this industry because it just made me feel so bad about myself,” she said on Tuesday. “I was probably 21 and I was just kind of starting to understand myself as an independent person and it was just really, really hurtful just to be like so body shamed like that.”
She understands just as well as the rest of Us that her image was all about being confident, cool and care-free. But this occurrence made it nearly impossible to continue this persona.
“My brand has always been about being so unapologetically myself and being confident and the worst thing I would feel I would be to my fans is like a lying or a fraud. But I felt like having this persona of being the most confident girl on the planet was actually kind of fraud because I was so insecure on the inside that in my personal life, I wasn’t even wearing bathing suits or shorts. And when I was wearing like my little leotards and things, I had on fucking four pairs of tights because I was so insecure.”
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