Noah Cyrus Recalls "Hiding From the World" Amid Comparisons to Miley Cyrus

Noah Cyrus discussed growing up in a famous family and having the public compare her to Miley Cyrus in "The Mischief Issue" of tmrw.

By Elyse Dupre Apr 15, 2020 6:54 PMTags
Watch: Noah Cyrus on Being Compared to Sister Miley

Noah Cyrus discussed growing up in a famous family for "The Mischief Issue" of tmrw.

Looking back at her early teenage years, the now 20-year-old artist recalled locking herself in her bedroom and sitting alone with the lights off. The space, as the magazine put it, served as a "safe place to hide from the bullying, the comparisons to her older sister Miley Cyrus, father, Billy Ray Cyrus, or whomever else, and the cruel things strangers wrote about a preteen they had never met."

"Being in my room with the lights off, hiding from the world, that's not a way to live for such a young girl," Noah told the publication. "So, you know, whenever I think about how many other people are going through the same thing—especially at the age I was at—there are so many more people out there. I think that whenever I see other artists like myself speaking out and talking about it, it makes me really happy because I didn't really have that when I was growing up."

Whether they called her "Hannah Montana's sister" or asked her about being Miley's younger sibling, the public referred to Noah by many names other than her own.

"Somebody not even coming up to you and calling you by your name?" she said. "That's going to really f--k you up as a kid, make you feel like you don't f--king even matter to the population—for them to not even know your name."

When asked if people had any misconceptions about her based on her last name, Noah said "that list goes on for f--kin' forever."

Liam Young and Nathan Singh for <i>tmrw</i>

"I think what's weird about people on the internet is that they think if you have a well-known last name that whatever they say to you may not hurt your feelings or that whatever they say about you couldn't possibly make its way to you or hurt you," she told tmrw. "There's no mercy from people who see you only as public. I would say what bothers me the most is that people think that they can just say whatever the f--k they want, and it doesn't really have a consequence to it or it doesn't affect anything ‘cause it's said over the internet. There's so much power to the internet. Whether you're well-known or not, it still f--king hurts somebody so bad to read the s--t that I've been reading since I was so young. So many people get that every day, and it's so f--ked up, man."

To be clear, Noah is proud to be a Cyrus. She has loads of love for her family and even shares a "Cyrus" tattoo with Miley, Billy Ray and Trace Cyrus. Still, she's happy to stand in her own spotlight. 

"I've always understood that I had a 'powerful' last name, or a well-known last name, so that's not really what I wanted to be tied to," she told the magazine. "I always wanted to be tied to Noah."

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Noah continues to carve her own path. Last month, she released her latest single "I Got So High That I Saw Jesus." She's also spoken about mental health, including her experiences with anxiety and depression, and has supported causes that are close to her heart. For instance, she recently launched the LONELY apparel collection in partnership with the Crystal Campaign to benefit The Jed Foundation—a nonprofit that works to protect the emotional health of teens and young adults and prevent suicide.

She also hasn't let her haters stand in her way of following her dreams.

"I felt I was put in this really unique situation of growing up in the family I grew up in," she told the publication. "Very different. Not being able to go to school, not being able to do a lot, it really was a different way of growing up. I feel like now is my chance to all the people that were so awful to me when I was so young publicly, and everybody that called me what they called me. I feel like it's kind of my time to prove them wrong, make them feel stupid, and that's kind of how I feel right now. I just want to do things for me and make me happy. All the people that told me I couldn't, prove them wrong and show them that I could."

To read her full interview, check out "The Mischief Issue" of tmrw.