These days, the daring Miley Cyrus is more than comfortable in her own skin, but her boldness wasn’t assigned at birth, and she tells Marie Claire in a new interview that playing Hannah Montana — an unblemished, squeaky clean child star — left her feeling adrift.

“From the time I was 11, it was, 'You're a pop star! That means you have to be blonde, and you have to have long hair, and you have to put on some glittery tight thing,'” Cyrus says in the magazine, for which covers the September issue.

“Meanwhile, I'm this fragile little girl playing a 16-year-old in a wig and a ton of makeup. It was like Toddlers & Tiaras. I had f---ing flippers.”

And though Cyrus has managed to let go of pressure to remain pristine, she says there’s no escaping the premium put on idealized Hollywood perfection.

“When you look at retouched, perfect photos, you feel like s---,” she admits.

“They lighten black girls' skin. They smooth out wrinkles. Even when I get stuck on Instagram wondering, Why don't I look like that? It's a total bummer. It's crazy what people have decided we're all supposed to be.”

Still, Cyrus takes pride in her “liberal-ass freak” persona, and says it’s a comfort to find like-minded people — like Caitlyn Jenner — whose journeys are taking them off the beaten path. “We've talked a lot about how you can never make every single person happy,” she recalls. “We always laugh about people saying she transitioned to be famous. Which is crazy.”

Check out Miley’s full interview, and tell us what you think!

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