In recent years, Miley Cyrus has decided to leave behind her good girl image for something more salacious. Once Disney Channel’s sweetheart, Miley is now Hollywood’s wild card. Praised by some and ostracized by many Miley has radically changed her lifestyle, fashion, and reputation as a celebrity. In a culture that has constricting views of how people should act, very little room has been left for young people, like Miley, to find themselves.

The phase between childhood and adulthood is a confusing one. This phase is a transition in which young people have the opportunity to evolve. Constantly having to live up to the unrealistic ideals of teachers, parents, and peers is a large weight that every teen must carry.

Teens are put under a lot of pressure, especially high schoolers, having to worry about their current responsibilities and rules others have bestowed upon them while stressing over their social lives, grades, colleges, and trying to fit in sleep. Miley represents a teen or young person breaking free and transition into an individual.  Although, I don’t particularly agree with all forms of rebellion, I can understand why a stressed and hormonal teen would want to rebel.

To understand Miley Cyrus, I think people, adults particularly, have to remember what it was like to be young and figuring out who you are as an individual. Shaming people into conforming to societal norms impedes this process, causing extraordinary talent to go unnoticed under an ordinary facade. Miley and other young people like her are at a time in their lives when they are able to separate themselves from their parents and peers and finally make their own choices.

In the 21st century where everyone is fighting to be noticed, young people have to try twice as hard to become relevant. Without some rebellion and individualization students are unable to present themselves and their brand as something new and exciting, which is exactly what Miley Cyrus is trying to do with her media reputation.

The world is constantly changing and being different is your best bet at climbing up the social, educational, or occupational ladder, so it almost seems counter productive to tell young people that it is bad for them to express themselves and to show their individuality.

So let’s just leave Miley to her twerking.