25 Former Female Child Stars Who Exposed The Dark Reality Of Hollywood

2. Miley Cyrus

Miley Cyrus has frequently addressed the intense s*xualization and scrutiny she faced as a child and young adult in the industry, particularly during her transition away from her Disney Channel persona. In an interview with Harper’s Bazaar for its August 2017 issue, Cyrus reflected on her much-discussed 2013 MTV Video Music Awards performance with Robin Thicke, admitting that while the era began as a form of “rebellion,” it eventually became something darker. She described it as a “kind of a ‘f*ck you’” to the system that had controlled her for so long, but said the stunt quickly turned into an expectation. “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 t*ts out and stick out my tongue.” What initially felt empowering soon crossed into discomfort. “In the beginning, it was kind of like saying, ‘F*ck you. Girls should be able to have this freedom or whatever.’ But it got to a point where I did feel s*xualized.” Cyrus has previously revealed that playing Hannah Montana, a character styled to look like a 16-year-old, while she was only 11 contributed to body dysmorphia, as she was constantly told what a girl “should be” by older men making decisions about her appearance. As a teenager, Miley also found herself at the center of wildly inappropriate rumors. At just 14 years old, false claims circulated that she was pregnant, forcing her to publicly address them on red carpets in 2007 at such a young age. “I am not pregnant. I am 14 years old, and that is very lame because I’m a minor,” she said bluntly in interviews with Inside Edition and Extra . “The main reason that I’m here tonight is to set the record straight. I think people that make stuff up like that and do that, it’s kind of a cry for help, for attention.” The pop star later admitted the rumor initially left her heartbroken, fearing she would be judged for something entirely fabricated. Reacting to the pregnancy rumors when Miley was just 14, one angry social media user commented, “It disturbs me that we were a society that allowed this kind of disrespect toward a child and saw it as the norm.” “She was a child. A grown adult interviewing her did not need to get nosy or interrogate her, it [made] her uncomfortable.”