I happen to be perhaps one of those few kids from my generation who had never watched Hannah Montana till the time they gave that late night slot to it on Disney, years after it came to a close. But I always knew she existed. Because she was practically everywhere! Bags, bottles, lunchboxes, Tshirts, shoes to dollhouses. I was forcefed so much Miley, that I fell in love with a character that I had never seen on television. For years, she was nowhere to be seen except for those repeats from her golden teen years (at least that’s what we were made to believe) on Disney alongside her Disney companions Demi Lovato and Selena Gomez. Meanwhile she had a fairytale engagement to Liam Hemsworth. Then there was that Vanity fair Oscar party where Miley was seen flashing her engagement ring in a majestic grey Roberto Cavalli gown with her pretty beau and everybody went, “Oh my god! They’re having that perfect moment. I wanna live that moment too!” She was everybody’s princess. Every girl wanted to be Miley.
And then bang! 2013 happened and then the VMAs and Robin Thicke. And we can’t stop, and we won’t stop. Miley’s not so esoteric wrecking ball gave her not just a whooping 19.3 million views in just the first 24 hours but also a fancy slot in Time’s “100 Most Influential People of 2014″. A slew of drugs, twerks, nipple pasties, fishnets, short hair, red lips, Gstrings and a lot of tongue action (punintended) happened thereafter! Her Instagram feed was now filled with absolute randomness and a lot (and from that I mean a lot) of Jeremy Scot. Was her mad metamorphosis one of her best PR moves? The almost vanishing Miley was now back with songs that frequently made it to Billboard’s Top 100. People were obviously shocked and Miley was now poorman’s Gaga. So what was it that had suddenly gotten into their perfect Disney princess? Okay wait! Did I just narrate a story about the most dramatic and outrageous end to self-denial leading to self-acceptance?
My love for Miley is unconditional, unapologetic and not to mention very biased. When Miley uploaded a picture of her’s that had a juxtaposition of her then and now pictures, everybody went “You used to be so pretty before you became a slut!” A few posts after, she posted a screenshot of that very post exploding with hate comments except for one that said, “Nobody realizes how much happier she looks.(sic)” No matter how much flak she might get for
her drastic transformation, we cannot deny that she’s got one of the finest vocals in the business. She didn’t become a Hannah Montana with auto-tuning. The truth is we love our half truths. Because we’re all obsessed with perfection. Time to dig into reality maybe? I thank god she grew up and accepted her true self. People would’ve never let her leave her Disney princess image. May be she wasn’t happy with the way it had been. Like Dolly Parton had said about Miley, “ She made her point, she made her mark, and more power to her.” After all self denial is the worst thing one could do to oneself, isn’t it?
Peace in.
– Anwesh Kumar Sahoo
Artist At Work Productions 
Finally, some positivity. Thank you for writing this.