Miley Cyrus opened up about changing her image after feeling “sexualized” early in her career

NEW YORK, NY - MAY 16: (EXCLUSIVE COVERAGE) Miley Cyrus visits "The Elvis Duran Z100 Morning Show" at Z100 Studio on May 16, 2017 in New York City. (Photo by Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images)

Miley Cyrus is getting real about growing up in the spotlight.

Videos by Rare

The “Malibu” singer opened up about her career so far in a new interview for Harper’s Bazaar’s August issue. She said that the girl that everyone remembers twerking onstage with Robin Thicke four years ago is far from the woman she has become today.

“I feel really kind of far away from that person. I just want people to see that this is who I am right now. I’m not saying I’ve never been myself. Who I was on the last record was really who I am,” she said. “It’s just myself has been a lot of different people, because I change a lot.”

Now that she has pulled away from that wild image, Cyrus said she feels closer to her roots.

“People get told that it’s a bad thing to change. Like, people will say, ‘You’ve changed.’ And that’s supposed to be derogatory. But you are supposed to change all the time,” she said, adding that she took some time for herself in recent months. “I think I’m just figuring out who I am at such a rapid pace that it’s hard for me to keep up with myself.”

Cyrus also opened up about the backlash she faced after dancing provocatively with Thicke and wearing racy clothing.

RELATED: The rumor mill is churning after word got out that Jennifer Lopez hired a private investigator to track A-Rod

“People were so shocked by some of the things that I did. It should be more shocking that when I was 11 or 12, I was put in full hair and makeup, a wig, and told what to wear by a group of mostly older men. I didn’t want to become any sort of man hater, because I love all humans; I am a humanitarian,” she said. “Beyoncé said, ‘Girls run the world,’ and that was an important thing to say, because I think subconsciously we are beaten down to believe that it isn’t true our whole lives. It’s no wonder that a lot of people lose their way and lose who they really are, because they always have people telling them who to be.”

Eventually, the singer said that the wild behavior became expected of her, so she decided it was time to change.

“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 tits out and stick out my tongue. In the beginning, it was kind of like saying, ‘Fuck you. Girls should be able to have this freedom or whatever,'” she shared. “But it got to a point where I did feel sexualized.”

Cyrus said that she hopes fans will accept her being her authentic self without reminding her of her past, which is something she has already put behind her.

“How can I f*****g be the role model I’m supposed to be? Yeah, I just said fucking role model. Who gives a s**t? Because I got my tits out before doesn’t make me less of a role model. I think I show people that they can be themselves. I also think something that has been important for me, in this next little, like, transition phase of my career is that I don’t give a fuck about being cool,” she said, adding, “I just want to be myself.”

What do you think?

Sean Hannity was so irritated by a Joe Scarborough segment that he spent an entire monologue attacking him

5 ways to prevent your phone from dying