Leave Miley alone!

by Kim Pham

The second Miley Cyrus's racy Myspace photos hit the internet, the blogosphere was buzzing with controversy. Critics claimed to see deja vu; a squeaky-clean Disney star heading down that one-way road to the oversexed, illegal-subtance-and-food-disorder-plagued Hollywood. Fans of the young and talented Miley, however, deemed the media as cruel and ruthless, making a proverbial mountain of a molehill.

The teen's latest provocative Vanity Fair pictures, shot by renowned photographer Annie Leibovitz, only stoked the media fire surrounding Miley. There is something obviously scandalous about the photos, which feature the messy-haired, lipstick-smudged teen starlet, wrapped in merely a bedsheet. Couple these artsy shots with the photos leaked from Miley's Myspace, and you have one mess of drama surrounding the 'Hannah Montana' phenomenon.

Seriously people, will you just let the girl live?! I am not such a fan of Miley or her Disney show, nor do I condone or approve of the pictures. However, I do know what it's like to be a 15-year-old freshman girl...after all, I was there just last year! For any girl that age, it is undoubtedly a pressured time; we pine for older boys, wish to physically mature, and try to come off as older and more attractive. No question about it, there are undoubtedly other 15-year-old girls throughout the country that are probably engaging in much more risque acts than the harmless pictures of Miley that keep on popping up online. But because her rise in celebrity is all due to the innocent, good-clean-fun that is the Disney channel, the media harshly magnifies every flaw; Miley's only mistake lay in her not being able to recognize the kind of scrutiny she is under, and therefore, suffering because of it.

And as for the Vanity Fair photos, can you really blame Miley? To get the opportunity to be shot by the famous Annie Leibovitz is indisputably humbling, especially for the young, vulnerable, and (most likely) fame-hungry starlet, looking to convert her Disney popularity to widespread, all-ages appeal. It would definitely be an honor to anyone to be shot by Leibovitz for the esteemed Vanity Fair, let alone a 15-year-old from the suburbs of Tennessee.

Close-minded parents (or those in denial) need to stop overexamining a poor girl leaving thousands of miles away and instead, focus on teaching their own children right at home. Rather than claiming that Miley utterly killed her image as the flawless role model and sets a bad example for young fans everywhere, they need to realize that this 15-year-old girl, like any other, is just trying to have fun. She does have her imperfections; after all, Miley is just living a teenage life. It's a shame she has to apologize for doing just that.