If you were online in 2008, you remember the "sheet." It was the photo that supposedly ended the innocence of America’s sweetheart. Miley Cyrus, then just 15 and the face of the Disney Channel’s billion-dollar Hannah Montana empire, appeared on the cover of Vanity Fair draped in nothing but a silk cloth. The internet—or what passed for the internet back then—absolutely lost its collective mind.
Fast forward nearly two decades. The Miley Cyrus Vanity Fair saga isn't just a piece of tabloid history; it is a roadmap for how she became the most resilient, unapologetic woman in pop music. Looking back at it now, with the perspective of a 2026 lens, the outrage feels almost quaint. But at the time? It was a full-blown national crisis.
The 2008 Annie Leibovitz Controversy: Was It Manipulation?
The photo was shot by the legendary Annie Leibovitz. It was meant to be "artistic." Miley looked over her bare shoulder, her hair messy, her eyes fixed on the lens. It was a stark departure from the blonde wig and glitter of her TV persona.
Disney immediately went into damage control mode. They issued a statement claiming a 15-year-old had been "deliberately manipulated" to sell magazines. Parents threatened to burn their Hannah Montana lunchboxes. Miley, under immense pressure from the mouse-eared corporate overlords, issued a public apology. She said she felt "embarrassed."
But she wasn't. Not really.
In her 2023 "Used to Be Young" series, Miley finally set the record straight. She revealed that her little sister, Noah Cyrus, was actually sitting on Annie’s lap, pushing the button on the camera. Her whole family was there. The makeup artist, Pati Dubroff, intentionally chose red lipstick to create a boundary between Miley the person and Hannah the product.
🔗 Read more: Taylor Frankie Paul Worth: What the MomTok Queen Actually Makes
"There was nothing sexualized about this on set," Miley said years later. "It was everyone else's poisonous thoughts and minds that turned it into something it wasn't."
In 2018, she officially rescinded that apology on Twitter with a very blunt: "I'M NOT SORRY." Honestly, can you blame her? She was a kid doing a job with her parents standing five feet away. The "scandal" was entirely manufactured by adults who couldn't handle a teenage girl growing up.
The 2019 Identity Shift: Redefining Marriage and Queerness
By the time the next major Miley Cyrus Vanity Fair cover rolled around in 2019, the world was looking at a very different woman. She had just married Liam Hemsworth. They had recently lost their Malibu home to the devastating Woolsey Fire.
This interview was deep. It wasn't about a photo; it was about the soul. Miley used the platform to explain how being in a "hetero relationship" didn't erase her identity as a queer person. She described her bond with Liam as "New Age," something that existed on a spiritual level rather than a gendered one.
She told the magazine, "We’re redefining, to be f—ing frank, what it looks like for someone that’s a queer person like myself to be in a hetero relationship."
She also famously addressed her wedding day style. She wore a dress. She straightened her hair. But she made it clear that didn't make her a "polite hetero lady." She was still the same girl who once swung on a wrecking ball, just in a different phase of her evolution.
Sobriety, Touring, and the "Dopamine Crash"
The most recent conversations surrounding Miley and major profiles like those in Vanity Fair and Variety have shifted toward her health. Specifically, her sobriety and her refusal to tour.
She’s been very open about the "dopamine crash" that happens after a show. You have 80,000 people screaming your name, and then you go back to a quiet hotel room alone. For Miley, that cycle was a recipe for disaster. She’s prioritized her "pillar of stability"—sobriety—over the massive paychecks that come with a world tour.
Why Miley’s Vanity Fair History Still Matters
- Autonomy: It marks the moment she stopped letting Disney dictate her image.
- Media Literacy: It’s a case study in how the media sexualizes young stars and then blames them for it.
- Evolution: You can track her growth from a "manipulated" child to a "New Age" wife to a Grammy-winning independent powerhouse.
What Most People Get Wrong
People think the 2008 photo was a "rebellion." It wasn't. It was just a photoshoot. The rebellion came later, during the Bangerz era. The Vanity Fair shoot was an attempt at high-fashion portraiture that the public wasn't ready for.
Another misconception? That her marriage to Liam was an attempt to "go back to her roots." If you read the 2019 interview carefully, she was never trying to go back. She was trying to integrate all the parts of herself—the country girl, the pop star, the queer activist—into one person.
Moving Forward: The Miley Blueprint
If you’re looking for a lesson in Miley’s history with the press, it’s this: Own your narrative before someone else writes it for you. Miley spent years apologizing for things she wasn't sorry for. Now, she doesn't. Whether she's posing for Ryan McGinley in 2024 or talking about her "Something Beautiful" visual album, she is the one in the driver's seat.
Your Next Steps for Following Miley's Evolution:
- Watch the "Used to Be Young" series on TikTok for her first-person account of her career highs and lows.
- Listen to her 2024-2025 interviews regarding her new visual projects; she discusses the "infrastructure" of the music industry in a way few stars dare to.
- Check out the 2024 Vanity Fair cover shot by Ryan McGinley to see the visual contrast between her 15-year-old self and the 31-year-old icon she has become.
The Miley Cyrus Vanity Fair archives are more than just glossy pages. They are the receipts of a woman who survived the child-star machine and came out the other side with her voice—and her sanity—intact.