Miley Cyrus named youngest Disney legend

LAST August 11th, singer and actress Miley Cyrus was honored with a Disney Legend Award at the D23 Expo. This Hall of Fame award is given by the Walt Disney Company to the people who made a significant impact on the legacy of the company.

Other beloved celebrities who have been given the award in the past are Harrison Ford, Jamie Lee Curtis, Angela Bᴀsset, Frank Oz,  and James Cameron.

The show “Hannah Montana” aired back in 2006, and then ended in 2011. Miley took on the role when she was just 13 years old.

The series followed the life of a young girl named Miley Stewart, who lived a secret double life as popstar Hannah Montana. The show then followed the wacky adventures she’d get into with her best friends and also dealt with the many issues that teenagers go through.

Originally, Miley auditioned to be Hannah’s best friend, Lily. She’d explained that, back in 2004, she’d been too young to fit in with the group they’d already cast. A year later, however, they then called back and said they wanted to give her another chance.

“And the rest is herstory,” she’d said.

As quoted by GMA Lifestyle, Miley declared: “I was Hannah Montana, and I was so proud to be.”

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“I’m gonna let everybody get on a little Disney Legend secret,” Miley had said tearfully in her speech.

What I want to say is that legends get scared, too. I’m scared right now, but the difference is we do it anyway, and all of you can do that every single day. It’s legendary to be afraid and do it anyway. There is no such thing as failure when you try.”

She would continue to say that, until now, she is proud to have been the beloved Hannah Montana, quoting the character as she said: “This is the life.”

While Miley has said in the past that she has no bad feelings about the work she did at Disney, she has also discussed how hard life had been during that time.

In an interview she did in the past, she recounted her work schedule while she was still acting as Hannah; at the time, she was waking up at 5:30 in the morning to get her makeup done, then going to several different interviews and pH๏τoshoots from 7:15 AM to 6:15 PM, according to Variety Magazine.

The following day, she would be working from 7 AM to 7:30 PM and then would fly back home, having only one day off before having to go back to filming the show the following day.

At the time, she was only 12 or 13 years old. This would then be her schedule for the next four years of her life.

As she grew up, Miley would face great public scrutiny from the media, particularly due to her background of being a Disney child star. This was seen even more when she started making music and doing things not in line with the Disney image, with many labeling her as controversial and rebellious.

“I was harshly judged as a child by adults and now, as an adult, I realize that I would never harshly judge a child,” she’d said in an interview with British Vogue back in 2023.

She’d said in an interview with CBS Sunday Morning in 2017 that touring as both Hannah and herself did a lot of damage to her psyche, particularly now that she’s an adult.

She’d also discussed in the past that always having makeup on and being expected to look a certain way had probably caused her to develop some body dysmorphia. While she was on the show, she would often have anxiety attacks as well.

While she did like being in the Disney universe, she also realized that the workload and the immense pressure she was under were a lot to put on a child.

In accepting her award, however, it can be seen that Miley still holds an immense amount of love for Disney in her heart, and will always appreciate being Hannah, as well as the opportunities that came with playing the character.