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Noah Cyrus’ Emotional Reveal: Living in Miley’s Shadow Was “Absolutely Unbearable”

May 20, 2020

Singer Noah Cyrus recently spoke out about what it was like being Miley Cyrus’ younger sister, breaking into tears as she described living in her popstar older sister’s shadow. During an Instagram Live to celebrate the release of her EP The End of Everything, the 20 year-old became emotional as she talked about her song “Young & Sad,” the lyrics of which address the struggles she faced growing up in a famous family. 

Growing up with an accomplished older sibling can be an intimidating obstacle to overcome and no one knows this better than Noah Cyrus. Miley Cyrus, Noah’s older sister became a pop sensation at a young age with her chart toppers such as “Party in the U.S.A” and her hit show, Hannah Montana. Despite Noah’s love for her sister and family, this shadow cast by Miley took a toll on her younger sister. 

In a previous interview with E! News, Noah recalled being called “Hannah Montana’s sister” and other names that weren’t representative of who she is. “Somebody not even coming up to you and calling you by your name?” the younger singer said. “That’s going to really f— you up as a kid, make you feel like you don’t f—ing even matter to the population – for them to not even know your name.” These experiences evidently stayed with Noah, and she talked about the impact they had on her and her new song. 

“Being born in the family I was in, everybody gave me such a hard time for having a hard time being Miley’s little sister, but, you know, I always felt like I was that person that no one gave a shit about due to what people said to me online,” she said crying, adding that it was “absolutely unbearable.” 

In the livestream, Cyrus talks about the lyrics, ‘My sister’s like sunshine / Always bringing good light wherever she will go / And I was born to rain clouds / When they blew the flame out / Blessed in her shadows,’ saying that she wrote these lyrics “Because that’s why everybody always says to me, that no matter what, I was going to be in that shadow.”

The “Lonely” singer continued adding “That was something I heard my whole life, every single day, my whole life. And it was either that or that I wasn’t enough in some way, whether it was the way I look or the way I am. Like I said the other day, I feel like sometimes I don’t even breathe right sometimes.”

Despite this, the youngest Cyrus is not ashamed of her last name, and even has it tattooed on her arm, matching her father, sister and brother. She said “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 said in the interview. “I always wanted to be tied to Noah.”

Cyrus said that she would not be talking about the meaning behind “Young & Sad” after this, explaining “You guys are young, you know the internet. And it’s been really tough on me, so that song is just pretty tough to get through.”

Listen to Cyrus’ song “Young & Sad” here: