Noah Cyrus used to "hide" from online bullying in her bedroom.
The 20-year-old singer shot to fame as a teenager when she began following in the footsteps of her family – including father Billy Ray Cyrus and older sister Miley Cyrus – by starting her own music career.
But living in the spotlight at a young age made her susceptible to criticism from online trolls, and Noah admits their comments made her want to "hide from the world".
She said: "Being in my room with the lights off, hiding from the world, that’s not a way to live for such a young girl. So, you know, whenever I think about how many other people are going through the same thing – especially at the age I was at – there are so many more people out there. I think that whenever I see other artists like myself speaking out and talking about it, it makes me really happy because I didn’t really have that when I was growing up."
Many of the comments Noah received compared her to her sister Miley – who also found fame as a youngster on Disney Channel show ‘Hannah Montana’ – and the ‘Make Me’ singer says not being recognised as her own person "f***ed [her] up".
She added: "Somebody not even coming up to you and calling you by your name? That’s going to really f**k you up as a kid, make you feel like you don’t f***ing even matter to the population – for them to not even know your name."
And the star also had people judge her based solely on her famous family.
She explained: "I think what’s weird about people on the internet is that they think if you have a well-known last name that whatever they say to you may not hurt your feelings or that whatever they say about you couldn’t possibly make its way to you or hurt you. Whether you’re well-known or not, it still f***ing hurts somebody so bad to read the s**t that I’ve been reading since I was so young. So many people get that every day, and it’s so f***ed up, man."
Despite the criticism she’s received, Noah couldn’t be more proud to be a part of the Cyrus family, and even has a "Cyrus" tattoo which matches one Miley has.
But the singer wants to be able to stand in her own spotlight too.
Speaking to tmrw magazine, she said: "I’ve always understood that I had a ‘powerful’ last name, or a well-known last name, so that’s not really what I wanted to be tied to. I always wanted to be tied to Noah."