Miley Cyrus: Vanity Fair pics were a mistake but the criticism really hurt

Miley Cyrus has blamed her Vanity Fair photos on her youth and desire to please.

She told Good Morning America yesterday that the photos - which saw her topless, covering her chest with a blanket - were a “mistake”: “I think I was just in a stage where I was just trying to get things done, and maybe look for an older audience. I was working with a big magazine just trying to go with what they were saying.”

But she was still taken surprise by the criticism: “[I now] know what it’s like to have people talk about you like you’re kind of iron.

“People need to remember that I am young and that I do have feelings, and I’ll do the same thing for them. Anyone who was 15 years old can’t say they haven’t made a mistake. So I think it’s just normal.”

She added she realises she’s putting more of herself on show with her new album ‘Breakout’ than she ever did in her role as Hannah Montana: “To finally not be hiding behind a wig or being a character, it’s like if no one shows up, as Hannah it’s okay, it’s a little bit better. If no one shows up, as Miley I’m like, ‘Okay this is really going to hurt,’ because these are songs that I’ve written that are really important to me and things that I want to say.”