There was a time when
Miley Cyrus knew she didn't want to be
Hannah Montana anymore.
The 26-year-old singer is getting candid about her child star past, revealing in a new interview with
ELLE magazine that she felt "ridiculous" playing the blond-haired superstar after losing her virginity.
"I [wanted to stop being Hannah Montana] once I was 18 because it felt ridiculous," Cyrus admits. "The minute I had sex, I was kind of like, I can't put the fucking wig on again. It got weird. It just felt like...I was grown up."
"One time I went backstage at Disneyland, and Peter Pan was smoking a cigarette. And I was like, 'That's me. That's the kind of dreams I'm crushing,'" she recalled. "That's how everyone felt with the bong video, but I'm not a Disney mascot. I'm a person."
It's now been eight years since the "We Can't Stop" singer said goodbye to her Disney Channel character. And while fans have seen Cyrus shed her squeaky-clean persona, she says she's "not ashamed" of her past as a child star.
"It's pretty cool when you hear Cardi B was listening to Hannah Montana when she was in high school," Cyrus says. "That sh*t makes me happy."
She's also proud that she is at a time in her career where she has "the respect that I want." "When I walk into a room, people may think, 'Okay, she gets her t*ts out.' But they also think, 'But she’s got a f**king sick voice,' and that’s all I care about," she explains.
For now, Cyrus is gearing up for the release of her new album, She Is Miley Cyrus. "'She' does not represent a gender. She is not just a woman. 'She' doesn’t refer to a vagina. She is a force of nature. She is power. She can be anything you want to be, therefore, she is everything," she says of her LP's title. "She is the super she. She is the she-ro. She is the She-E-O."