Miley Cyrus is the cover girl for the February issue of Harper’s Bazaar, and she chomped her way through a spectacular interview. The full piece if here, but Us Weekly has some of the best of excerpts from the piece. Miley is still talking about how uncool it was that people questioned why Miley would pose semi-naked for Vanity Fair when she was just 15 years old. She thinks we were all “looking for negativity.” No mention if we were also looking for negativity in her pole dancing at the Teen Choice awards, but Miley did utter this sentence: “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.” I agree, it’s not her job to be a parent. But I’ll also go out on a limb and say that she’s not any kind of role model either.
Teen queen Miley Cyrus — who posed nearly naked for a 2008 Vanity Fair shoot; dated an older underwear model and mocked Asian people, for which she was later criticized — realizes kids look up to her.
But she says she isn’t responsible for how they act.
“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,” she tells the February issue of Harper’s Bazaar. “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.”
Cyrus, 17, says most people tend to focus on the negative when it comes to her life.
Take those provocative Vanity Fair photos, for instance.
“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?” she says. “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.”
Cyrus insists she is just like everyone else, insecurities and all.
“I used to ask everyone all day, ‘Do I look pretty?’ I probably asked that question about as many times as I blink,” she says.
She says it wasn’t until she began shooting her upcoming drama, The Last Song, in Georgia last year that she “started feeling beautiful,” she says. “It’s just because I was comfortable [there]. I was so used to the paparazzi and the cameras and the ‘What are you wearing?’ and having people stare at me.”
[From Us Weekly]
Some people are making a big deal about Miley maybe being Photoshopped to look older on the cover, but I don’t really see it. If anything, I think she looks very fresh-faced and young on the cover, not older. She looks very “Southern beauty pageant runner-up” to me, actually. I think Miley is photogenic, but I think she photographs “young”. Which may be why people got upset with those Vanity Fair photos – she looked like a very, very young, vulnerable girl wrapped in a sheet, and that idea disturbed people. Meh. Whatever.
Harper’s Bazaar cover and additional image courtesy of Just Jared.
Does not look like her at all…the eyes are somehow different.
While I don’t really like Miley as a role model, she is correct that no matter what she does it is still a parents job to make sure their kids do the right thing. Personally I would just look at what Miley does and make sure my kids don’t do that!
I see a lot of potential in her and I don’t see anything abnormal in her behavior. At 16 everyone experiments with different personalities. She’s still figuring out who she wants to be, but as long as she keeps her head straight I think she’s going to end up a lovely woman.
She could be really great. I guess we’ll see if she lives up to that or not.
They sure as hell photoshopped the hell out of her mouth. Her teeth kind of look normal for a spell.
The one time I applaud the use of PS.
A role model is someone you look up too and you aspire to be like that person.
She is not a role model and I hope that she does not breed and because I’m sure she will do the same thing her father did , use her kids for a comeback.
Her job is not being a role model , her job is being one of disney’s puppet.
If any kind would choose a “disney” role model , there are a lot of better ones that Miley.
There is Raven Symone , she is extremely sucessfull , she graduated from high school with honors and she will be going to college in the future and she has no scandals .
Kyle Masseey , is also young and you never hear of him getting into trouble.
The Sprouse twins, there are a lot of good kids in disney we just hear about the scandalous ones.
PS: The person who did the photoshop deserves a award because she looks really good.
Geez, get over yourself Miley.
I have to say I do agree w/ this dummy!! Im sure I was much worse @ her age, i didnt really think i was that bad until now. Parents need to keep their kids in line no matter what.
“Your kids are going to make mistakes whether I do or not. That’s just life.”
The only intelligent thing I’ve ever seen her quoted as saying. And I have to say, I agree. You want TV to raise your children, you’re the one to blame when they do something stupid to imitate Miley…or a thousand other stupid celebs. In the end, it’s up to the parents to decide what is best for their child, and no matter what they do or don’t do, that kid is going to make mistakes.
Miley is 15. Few 15 year olds make intelligent decisions. The real shame is the lack of parental guidance she has.
@Novaraen: I thought the same exact thing when I looked at the first photo
@ Firestarter: I agree with you about the photoshopped horse-mouth. Someone wanted, desperately, to make this tramp look respectable. Now if she would just stop pole dancing……..
PS where’s diva?
She’s an entertainer period and is neither a role model or a parent (yet).
Role model status should be reserved for family members and friends of the family. That’s it.
I’m so tired of hearing about role models. Miley is fine as a 17 year old and seems fairly grounded and well spoken. She is a singer/actress performer. That’s her job. That’s all. She works at a young age and works hard. This idea of public people as role models should be stricken from our culture. We need to learn more about different philosophies of living and go from there. I grew up as a child and teen listening to drug addicts play music. Didn’t see them as role models, just people who entertained. We need to learn how to separate what people do well in their lives and are praised or known for rather than what their actions or characters are as people (which we truly don’t know anyway).
“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?””
Its because a naked picture of a 15YEAR OLD teenager plastered all over the country in a major American magazine is inappropriate and the fact that your parents don’t see that means they aren’t parenting at all, and perhaps that Papa Cyrus is taking parenting lessons from Joe Simpson.
CRREEPPPY!
She shouldn’t be ANYONE’s role model.
She’s in an industry that THRIVES on the highest selling point through illusion/deception, shock, and publicity – have we forgotten Britney Spears’ journey so far?
She has lawyers, managers, handlers, and a BIG CORPORATION to “help” keep her in line right now. Let her become an emancipated ADULT and get back to me on this subject.
I think miley is very misguided. She does a lot of things for shock value and to see how far she can push the envelope. I’m glad America is watching, but it doesn’t seem to deter parents from letting their kids “follow” her. We see this behavior with most child stars trying to transition to adult stars.
Her parents seem to be ok with or setup most of things that she does. She will continue to make lots of money, badly influence young girls, and do whatever she chooses because we reward her with the almighty dollar. Stop buying into her actions and see how fast she stops acting out.
I take such issue with the “it’s not my job to raise your kids, it’s the parents’ job” angle. That in and of itself is absolutely true – I’m the mother to two young kids and hold myself and my husband completely responsible for raising them to be thoughtful, self-aware people. But it’s a cop-out for an entertainer whose prime audience is the pre-teen set to say she is totally absolved of any responsibility to her fans.
Leaving the semantics out of it (“role model”, “parent”, “steward of development”, whatever)…the fact is, she is in the public eye, her fanbase is young and impressionable, and people take notice of her actions. Like it or not, Miley (and you know you like it), these little kids are going to look up to you and try to emulate you. It’s what you signed up for. So don’t turn around now and say, “I’m going to do all of these things that are highly inappropriate for a person my age and make it look cool because I’m on TV, but it’s not my fault if you then think it’s cool and try to do it, too – and I have nothing to do with it when you are then judged to be behaving irresponsibly even though we’re the same age – because I’m on TV and you’re not, and you’ll be judged by real world standards but I can just prance off to the next pole unscathed, and say it’s not my fault, it’s your parents’.”
When I was a kid, Madonna was the big scandalous figure that all parents worried about. I was 11 years old when Like a Virgin came out. Madonna was 28. The biggest difference now is that Miley is a peer to her fans. She’s their age, or a few years older, and so it seems much more likely to a 15 year old fan that she can do what Miley does because they’re peers. 28 seemed really old to me when I was 11…so Madonna’s antics were something I hoped to do when I got older. Fortunately, I got a little wiser between 11 and 28 and realized that I did not, in fact, want to leave the house wearing nothing but a bra and hot pants.
Again, ultimately the responsibility lies with the parents – agreed. Which is why if my kid was of the age when she’d want to go see a Miley Cyrus concert, I’d be taking her to see Taylor Swift instead.
By the way, isn’t Miley still a minor herself?? Talk about parental responsibility gone awry, Billy Ray.
Ohhh my stomach hurts from laughing at this one. This is one deluded, talentless little knob. She’s getting older and her lack of intelligence is going to land her in a double-wide trailer back where she belongs. She’s not role model, she’s a cautionary tale!
And no, I’m not falling for the “she’s so young” crap, she’s been living in an adult world long enough to gather some social graces and manners from other people even if her hick family doesn’t have what it takes to teach her them. That’s one big ego waiting to fall on her ass AGAIN!
It’s all very well and good her saying that BUT saying we think negatively about everything she does!?! What so she wants us to say positively about the stuff she’s doing! Like pole dancing in front of five year olds!?! And taking half naked pictures of herself?! How can you be positive about things like that!
Words can never encompass how much I hate this girl.
Makes one wonder what Walt would say if he saw how the neo “Musketeers” have turned out.
Do you think these kids live up to his vision? The shows on Disney Channel are horrible. The children are portrayed as materialistic, selfish little brats that our kids model themselves after. It’s so bad that I’ve banned all Disney programming that has human characters in it. The reason? My son (who is 9) trying to say that his bratty behaviour is fine because “Zack and Cody act like that”.
Not in my world.
And she’s the worst of the lot. When I saw her face on a Life Preserver (yes, because Hannah Montana can save your life, I guess) that was the final straw.
She’s got to go. And soon.
You know you’ve gone too far with photoshop when you make your subject look like Dannii Minogue.
Also, I do agree with her that it’s not her responsibility to raise anyone’s kids. It’s a good point, but I’m still scared after hearing her speak about herself using the word parent. Noo!
Apparently it’s not her dad’s job to be a parent, either.
Yeehaw, little darlin’! It’s 2010. Billy Ray is due his annual raise.
Wow is all I can say…she looks pretty in these photos so they must be photoshopped, she doesn’t look like this in person at all.
They slapped Liz Hurley’s mouth on her.
And Madonna was 25 when Like A Virgin came out, but point well taken.
Oh, and LOL @ “She’s not role model, she’s a cautionary tale!”.
It looks like she had her nose done. Nice role model for kids. Stupid in more ways than one, or 100 as the case may be.
wow…can u say photoshopped? they distanced her eyes pretty obviously and did something else to them…
And this is where Miley is wrong.
If the girl deems herself a role model, she needs to stop wearing bootie shorts and shimmying up and down stripper poles at her concerts, speaking and acting offensively (see “asian” photograph from awhile back). Who is she kidding? She’s got a fanbase that ranges from 6/7 year olds to 12/13 year olds. Miley, if you want to be a role model, you need to dress and act like a decent human being.
And drop the pretentious attitude while you’re at it. That’s not going to do you any favors on your quest to get a more mature fanbase.
What a bubblebrain she is-but hey she is a teen so I expect it, and her teenager’s abdication of responsibility. Mostly, I just want to smack her parents upside the head and call it a day.
God help us all if people seriously see this twit as any kind of role model. Also, isn’t Bazaar a magazine for adult women? Put her on the cover of Teen Beat (is that even still in print?)or the like. I rarely buy Bazaar, but I sure as hell wouldn’t buy it with MC on the cover.
We are sure do know NOW how to do it,, very informative