LOS ANGELES — Miley Cyrus says shooting her first serious film role over the summer afforded her the chance to finally live like a true teenager.
"I got on the plane [to Tybee Island, Georgia], and I was lying in my mom's lap and crying and saying, 'I'm so happy to be getting out of L.A.,' " the 17-year-old star tells the February issue of Harper's Bazaar of her days filming the upcoming movie, The Last Song.
"I went out every night with my friends. I did karaoke. I danced. All this stuff would've been such a big deal in Los Angeles: Who's she with? Why is she dancing? I felt alive and real," she continues. "It's so much easier to know who you are when there aren't a thousand people telling you who they think you are. I felt like I was really figuring myself out. Usually I have someone whispering in my ear, but I was on my own."
The chance to escape from the media was a welcome break for Cyrus, who has endured her fair share of public scrutiny since skyrocketing to fame on Hannah Montana. She's been criticized for a nearly naked Vanity Fair photo shoot, a photograph in which she appeared to be mocking Asian people, and a provocative pole dance at last year's Teen Choice Awards, to name a few.
"It doesn't make sense to us because [my family] doesn't look for negativity," she says. "But people don't want to say 'What a great performance' or 'What a great shot.' No one wants to look at something like that and see the positive because it doesn't sell a magazine."
While she embraces the ability to influence others, Cyrus warns that parents need to take control at home.
"My job is to be a role model, and that's what I want to do, but my job isn't to be a parent," she says. "My job isn't to tell your kids how to act or how not to act, because I'm still figuring that out for myself. So to take that away from me is a bit selfish. Your kids are going to make mistakes whether I do or not. That's just life."
As recently as last month, Cyrus found her influence being questioned after she was photographed poolside in Miami Beach with a tattoo that reads "Just Breathe" under her left breast. The "Party in the U.S.A." singer said her first tattoo is a tribute to her late grandfathers and a close friend who died of cystic fibrosis.
"It reminds me not to take things for granted. I mean, breathing—that was something none of them could do, the most basic thing," she says. "And I put it near my heart, because that is where they will always be."
Also see: Miley Cyrus Photos
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