How Miley Cyrus Reassures Us That “Life’s a Climb, but the View is Great”
With the release of her latest single, “Used To Be Young,” actress and singer Miley Cyrus has taken it upon herself to go down memory lane. The single acts as a love letter to her younger self, highlighting the changes she has experienced over the years. Its chorus focuses on how the public used to view her as wild and crazy, but from her perspective, she was just experiencing youth. Accompanying her single, Cyrus created a series of videos on TikTok where she walked through moments of her life since her birth in 1992 to moments that she’s experienced more recently in 2023.
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In her earlier years, Cyrus partook in cheerleading. As she looked back on film footage of herself practicing, she credits cheerleading for her realization of what dedication really meant. “I loved cheerleading so much [because] it just taught me about hard work and dedication, and you only get out what you put in. Foundationally it laid out the road for me to follow later in my career,” the singer stated. It’s not difficult to tell that the road Cyrus would later follow post-cheerleading was built on dedication and hard work.
In 2006, Disney’s American sitcom, Hannah Montana, hit the television screens of younger audiences everywhere. Cyrus starred as the lead; a pop star named Hannah Montana who was living a double life as an ordinary girl, Miley Stewart. Cyrus was only 13 years old when she appeared in this role, and the rest of her life began to unfold since. While Hannah Montana fans around the world got songs like “The Best of Both Worlds” or “Nobody’s Perfect” stuck in their heads or were dressing up as the popstar and performing fake concerts to their family and friends, Cyrus would be working almost 12-hour workdays to keep the public entertained.
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Because of the television show’s popularity, Cyrus became known for her role as Hannah Montana, not only creating a strong association between her name and Disney Channel, but also involuntarily becoming one with the character. Cyrus mentioned in her recent TikTok series, “At the time, I wasn’t valued in the way that Hannah was.” Due to her value being so heavily associated with the character of Hannah, Cyrus began to be considered a role model, which is a difficult responsibility to put on the shoulders of someone who is only 13 years old. Although her presence on the TV screen was almost constant, being a role model to other children was not something she was ready to be held accountable for.
During her Disney career, Cyrus released songs as the fictional popstar like the ones mentioned above, as well as music under her own name. In 2009, Cyrus met her now ex-husband, Liam Hemsworth, an inspiration for a large part of her discography. They filmed the movie, The Last Song, together which included Cyrus on the soundtrack with her song “When I Look at You.”
One of the first signs that Cyrus wanted to stray away from her Disney career was her infamous album, Can’t Be Tamed (2010), featuring her hit song of the same title. The song spoke on her need to be free, suggesting more mature themes that shocked the parents of her younger audiences who had once viewed her as a role model to their children. Parents would become even more shocked with Cyrus in 2013 when she decided to chop her longer brown hair and bleach it platinum blonde, releasing her suggestive song, “We Can’t Stop,” paired with an equally suggestive music video. It was now clear that Cyrus was no longer attached to her Hannah Montana image, and she would go on to make creative choices that she now references as “wild and crazy” in her 2023 single, “Used To Be Young.” Examples of these choices include her “Wrecking Ball” music video where she appeared nude on a wrecking ball and her controversial VMA performance with Robin Thicke. Cyrus recently commented on her TikTok series saying, “When you look back at it, you were mad at a 20-year-old dressed as a teddy bear!”
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After the release of her album, Bangerz (2013), which included the songs “We Can’t Stop” and “Wrecking Ball,” Cyrus released the album, Miley Cyrus & Her Dead Petz (2015), which parents didn’t favor either because of Cyrus’ involvement with psychedelics. However, this was the least of her worries because her target audience was not this demographic.
It was only in 2017 when Cyrus released her single, “Malibu,” that the public and media started to receive Miley’s image more positively. The single would appear on her record, Younger Now (2017), which Cyrus explained was extremely important and intimate to her. Variety Magazine comments on the “Malibu” music video saying “[The single] seems designed to convince us she’s grown out of shock value and into a more conscious version of the girl-next-door she once seemed.” Many fans interpreted this record to mean that the singer was metaphorically finding her way back home, as she sings about in Hannah Montana: The Movie (2009). In her song, “You’ll Always Find Your Way Back Home,” she uses the lyrics “You can change your hair and you can change your clothes. You can change your mind that’s just the way it goes. You can say goodbye, or you can say hello, but you’ll always find your way back home,” in support of this sentiment.
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Cyrus has released three albums since Younger Now (2017): SHE IS COMING (2019), Plastic Hearts (2020), and Endless Summer Vacation (2023).
From 1992 to now, the singer has shocked and surprised us, keeping the public and media on their toes due to the unpredictability of what she would do next. Throughout these years, Cyrus has experienced life to the fullest, learning different lessons as one does during the process of growing up. At the age of 30, Cyrus notes in her new song that she’s “left her livin’ fast somewhere in the past.”
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Miley Cyrus is the perfect example of what it means to be human. You make mistakes, you go through different phases, your tastes change, and you regret some things, but you can still appreciate all of that when you look back on how you’ve lived your life, and this is something we can all take note of.
Personally, I can get caught up in reminiscing on past versions of myself, thinking about how I miss the old versus celebrating the new. What I’ve learned from Miley is that you’ll never truly be your old self again, but that doesn’t have to be a bad thing. All that matters is that you are living authentically for yourself and no one else. Life is a climb, and you’re faced with obstacles along the way, but when you take the time to reflect as Cyrus has in “Used to be Young,” you come to realize that the view during the climb sure is great.
Strike Out,
Writer: Lindsey Limbach
Editor: Blake N. Fiadino
Tallahassee