Hannah Montana Forever: It Really Is The Best Of Both Worlds
Am I a little bit obsessed with Miley Cyrus? No. It’s a lot.
The day I first discovered the show Hannah Montana on my family computer, my whole world changed. The clouds opened to reveal the sun after years of rain. Like a come to Jesus moment*. The stars were finally aligned.
My life was never going to be the same.
At the time, I was a middle-school Canadian girl riddled with anxiety and undiagnosed ADHD. What did I have in common with a girl who grew up in Tennessee and moved to Malibu to become a pop star? Almost nothing, and yet, everything.
It was a time when figuring out who you are was all consuming. Finally, as an indecisive pre-teen, I was shown you don’t have to be one version of yourself. You don’t have to choose if you are more Mary-Kate or Ashley. You could be both.
I can be the down-to-earth girl who loves to ride horses (I have ridden a horse). And, not or, I can also be the full glam diva who sells out stadiums (I have major stage freight).
I want to be both of those girls. I don’t want to have to choose between one or the other.
Hannah Montana helped me accept that I am not just one thing and don’t have to be. There is a multitude of versions of myself I can try on. I won’t have to be boxed into one version of myself.
Now, I’m almost thirty, and I am so thankful for my silly childhood obsession with Hannah Montana. I can be girly and fun. I can also be tough and mean. What matters is the core of who I am. Anything else that changes doesn’t define me. The rest is just outward expressions of who I am that I get to share with the world.
I have learned I can be any version of myself I want to be, and I can be proud of those different versions of myself. Equally. Miley Stewart wasn’t only confident as Hannah Montana. That confidence stayed even without the wig on. I will be confident in any version of myself I choose to be.
And in the words of the icon herself. Life’s what you make it, so let’s make it rock!
*This comment was ironic, for reference. A story on that to come?