Miley Cyrus’ “Used to Be Young” TikTok series has been ongoing this week, with the singer reflecting on different moments throughout her 30-year life and decades-long career. In her latest installment, Demi Lovato and Taylor Swift were featured—and Miley credited one photo of them with herself and Hannah Montana co-star Emily Osment as proof of her bisexuality. Miley came out as pansexual, someone attracted to all people regardless of their sex or gender, in 2015.
“If you guys didn’t know I was bisexual from this damn picture, I don’t know what’s wrong with you,” she said. “What? I mean, hello! Look at them!”
“I literally think we were leaving the Grammys to go to the Cheesecake Factory,” she recalled. “Me and Emily and Taylor Swift and Demi Lovato are going to The Cheesecake Factory. These are some classy ladies.”
The photo went on to become the “be the Miley of your friend group” meme, as Miley was dressed down in jeans while Demi, Taylor, and Emily were dressed up for the April 2009 Hannah Montana: The Movie premiere, not the Grammys. Miley had been dressier earlier in the night, wearing a turquoise dress on the red carpet.
Miley wouldn’t speak about her sexuality in depth for years. When she came out in 2015, she explained simply to ELLE UK, “I’m very open about it–I’m pansexual.” She wasn’t looking for a relationship then. “I’m 22, I’m going on dates, but I change my style every two weeks, let alone who I’m with.”
A year later, she elaborated on the moment she knew she was pansexual to Variety. “I think when I figured out what it [pansexual] was. I went to the LGBTQ center here in L.A., and I started hearing these stories. I saw one human in particular who didn’t identify as male or female. Looking at them, they were both: beautiful and sexy and tough but vulnerable and feminine but masculine. And I related to that person more than I related to anyone in my life. Even though I may seem very different, people may not see me as neutral as I feel. But I feel very neutral. I think that was the first gender-neutral person I’d ever met. Once I understood my gender more, which was unassigned, then I understood my sexuality more. I was like, ‘Oh—that’s why I don’t feel straight and I don’t feel gay. It’s because I’m not.’”
Senior News and Strategy Editor
Alyssa Bailey is the senior news and strategy editor at ELLE.com, where she oversees coverage of celebrities and royals (particularly Meghan Markle and Kate Middleton). She previously held positions at InStyle and Cosmopolitan. When she’s not working, she loves running around Central Park, making people take #ootd pics of her, and exploring New York City.