The Wrecking Ball hitmaker rose to fame on the the Disney Channel show, which featured a teen girl living a double life as a world-famous singer, and in the new issue of Marie Claire magazine, the 22 year old admits that playing a picture perfect celebrity first introduced her to the demands of teen beauty.

She says, "From the time I was 11, it was, 'You're a pop star! That means you have to be blonde, and you have to have long hair, and you have to put on some glittery tight thing'. Meanwhile, I'm this fragile little girl playing a 16 year old in a wig and a ton of makeup."

Cyrus adds the way her character was portrayed greatly influenced the way she looked at herself, unknowingly adopting body issues as a young girl.

She continues, "I was made to look like someone that I wasn't, which probably caused some body dysmorphia because I had been made pretty every day for so long, and then when I wasn't on that show, it was like, 'Who the f**k am I?'"

Cyrus adds, "When you look at retouched, perfect photos, you feel like s**t. They lighten black girls' skin. They smooth out wrinkles. Even when I get stuck on Instagram wondering, 'Why don't I look like that?' It's a total bummer. It's crazy what people have decided we're all supposed to be."

But now that Cyrus has come to accept her own personal standard of beauty, she realises that her job as an entertainer isn't just to be a pretty face.

She says, "I'm probably never going to be the face of a traditional beauty company unless they want a weed-smoking, liberal-a** freak. But my dream was never to sell lip gloss. My dream is to save the world."