Noah Cyrus is opening about how difficult it was for her during the early days of her career to be asked about her famous sister Miley Cyrus, revealing that she even felt “stripped of identity.”

The 22-year-old musician talked to Rolling Stone about her childhood and growing up in the public eye, explaining that she always wanted to be a “normal kid” but had a hard time having a “public family,” in reference to the success of Miley and their country star dad Billy Ray Cyrus.

“I had a really hard time being a part of a public family, and I struggled a bit with that, because it wasn’t exactly my first choice,” Noah explained, further talking about struggling with mental health issues, including depression, anxiety and prescription drug abuse.

“I had a hard time with people coming up to me and saying, ‘Are you Miley Cyrus’ little sister?’ or ‘Are you Hannah Montana’s little sister?’ I did not like that, and it stripped me of my own identity for a long time.”

The singer is currently preparing to release her new album ‘The Hardest Part’ which is set to be released in September, revealing that working in her music was good for her and ultimately helped her to recover from substance abuse, as she said to be in a “dark pit, bottomless pit” during the COVID-19 pandemic, taking benzodiazepine Xanax.

“It gave me so much structure in the time that I really needed structure, because I didn’t want to just be sitting around and stirring in my brain,” Noah said about her upcoming album, “It gave me hope.”

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