The Stunning Transformation Of Noah Cyrus Is Turning Heads
Noah Cyrus may have grown up in a famous family — but that also made it difficult to figure out her own identity. Here's how she went from being labeled Miley's little sister to making emotional, Grammy-nominated music.
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00:00Noah Cyrus may have grown up in a famous family, but that also made it difficult to figure
00:05out her own identity. Here's how she went from being labeled Miley's little sister to
00:10making emotional, Grammy-nominated music.
00:13Noah Cyrus was born in Nashville in the year 2000, the youngest child of country singer
00:18Billy Ray Cyrus and his then-wife, Tish. Noah is also the sister of singer Miley Cyrus and
00:24Metro Station guitarist Trace Cyrus.
00:27But despite being part of a very famous family, Noah initially struggled to stand out. She
00:32told iNews,
00:33"'Something that really hurt me as a child was that I was stripped of my identity. I
00:37had no name at all."
00:39Eventually, the youngest Cyrus began getting recognized, too. She would later tell Rolling
00:43Stone,
00:44"'I had a really hard time being a part of a public family. And I struggled a bit with
00:48that, because it wasn't exactly my first choice.'"
00:51She also recalled how people would come up to her to ask if she was Miley Cyrus' sister.
00:56Sometimes not wanting to deal with the attention, Noah would lie to people and claim to be unrelated.
01:01Music soon became a fixation for the future singer. She particularly fell in love with
01:05emo music thanks to Trace. She told AXS TV,
01:08"'As a kid, I'd listen to, you know, Metro Station, because I was my brother's biggest
01:14fan and always wanted to be at their concerts.'"
01:17Eventually, Noah began dipping her toe in the family business. By 2007, she had appeared
01:22on several episodes of Hannah Montana alongside her dad and sister. She would play various
01:27small roles, including one credited as Little Shopper.
01:31In an interview with People, Billy Ray praised his youngest daughter's acting ability and
01:35said she'd have a career if she wants it. He told the outlet,
01:38"'If she wants to be an actress, I think she's got the chops to do it. She's pretty much
01:42a little natural.'"
01:44In 2009, Noah voiced the title character in the English dub of Ponyo. Even though the
01:49cast included luminaries like Cate Blanchett and Liam Neeson, Noah told Live for Films
01:54that it was actually her best friend she was most looking forward to working with, saying,
01:58"'I was excited working with Frankie Jonas.'"
02:01These early experiences with her own fame still affect Noah more than a decade later.
02:06She told Paper in 2019 that online comments around this time were extremely unkind. She
02:12recalled,
02:13"'When I was little, I wasn't posting pictures of myself. Those pictures were just on the
02:17internet because my family was my family. I read the comments about my face and things
02:21they would change about me. That made me grow to hate my face and my body.'"
02:26Even though Billy Ray Cyrus said his youngest daughter had a future in acting, she moved
02:30into music instead. In 2016, Noah dropped her debut single, Make Me Cry. She told Paper
02:36that she'd been involved in music since she was a child learning how to harmonize with
02:40her dad.
02:41When she struck out on her own, she realized she had a talent for songwriting. Noah told
02:45the outlet,
02:46"'Writing is the best way to get your mind clear. It's also a great way to explain your
02:50past or what you hope for the future.' Make Me Cry is a pop tune that features a guest
02:54spot from British artist Labyrinth."
02:56While speaking with iHeartRadio in 2017, Noah said they got along great, adding,
03:01"'We're just kind of crazy together, which I think was really cool.' The song was a decent
03:06hit, peaking at No. 46 on the Billboard Hot 100."
03:10In 2018, a few years into her solo career, Noah attended the VMAs with her then-boyfriend
03:16Lil Xan. Their awkward red carpet photos went viral on social media because the tattooed
03:21rapper couldn't help but put his nose right up against his girlfriend's neck. That very
03:25same day, they dropped a song called, "'Live or Die' together.
03:29Unfortunately, their relationship was doomed from the start. Mere weeks after their red
03:33carpet debut, Lil Xan and Noah went their separate ways. A few months later, Cyrus commented
03:38on a WorldStarHipHop Instagram post, writing,
03:41"'My last relationship was the mistake.'"
03:44In November 2020, Harry Styles set the fashion world on fire when he posed on the cover of
03:49Vogue in a gender-bending look that paired a blazer with a long, flowy dress. Conservative
03:54commentator Candice Owens wasn't happy. She took to X to criticize the former One Direction
04:00singer, writing,
04:01"'There is no society that can survive without strong men. It is an outright attack. Bring
04:06back manly men!'
04:07Many celebs stepped up to defend Styles' experimentation. Elijah Wood tweeted in response,
04:12"'I think you've missed the definition of what a man is. Masculinity alone does not
04:17make a man.'"
04:18While trying to stick up for Styles in her Instagram story, Noah unfortunately went a
04:22bit too far by using the word nappy. She was apparently unaware that nappy is a derogatory
04:27term related to the natural hairstyles of Black women. Fans quickly called her out on
04:32what seemed like a racially motivated response to Owens. To her credit, Cyrus apologized
04:37profusely. According to TMZ, she said,
04:40"'I am mortified that I used a term without knowing the context and history, but I know
04:44now and I am horrified and truly sorry. I will never use it again.'"
04:49When Noah was still a teenager, she began to experiment with drugs. She later told Rolling
04:54Stone that she first took Xanax with a boyfriend. She said to the outlet,
04:58"'It became a way for us to bond. I think I wanted to fit in with him. I wanted to be
05:02what he wanted and what he thought was cool and what I thought everybody was doing.'"
05:06"'That was like the beginning of what was a pretty tough couple years.'"
05:10Unfortunately, Noah began to rely on the pills, using them as an escape as the world slipped
05:15into chaos thanks to COVID-19. In May 2020, Noah recorded an interview about an EP she'd
05:22released, and she couldn't hold up her end of the conversation. She recalled to Rolling
05:26Stone,
05:27"'I was completely nodding off and falling asleep and unable to keep my head up or keep
05:31my eyes open because I was so far gone.'"
05:33That was a wake-up call for the singer. As someone who once bristled against her famous
05:38family's connections, Noah turned to her father for help. She visited him in August of that
05:43year, unsure how to convey to him that she was struggling. She revealed on The Kelly
05:47Clarkson Show,
05:48"'He had me take my shoes off and put my feet in the grass and really get connected to home.'"
05:53They relaxed into the moment, and it wound up being a memory Noah treasured as she committed
05:57to her recovery in the months ahead.
06:00In 2021, after years of putting in the work to get her singing career off the ground,
06:04Noah was nominated for Best New Artist at the Grammys. Technically, she hadn't even
06:09released a debut album yet. Many loose singles and several EPs were enough to put her on
06:13the radar of the Recording Academy. Noah told Grammy.com that she was overwhelmed by
06:18the notion that people were finally paying attention. She said,
06:21"'It was just kind of like a moment of, they're listening. People are not just looking at
06:26you, they're hearing your words.'"
06:27"'I was really making the music that I wanted to make.'"
06:30Noah told the same website that she was honored to continue her family legacy in music, seeing
06:35as her dad was nominated for Best New Artist back in 1993. She told Grammy.com,
06:40"'It just felt full circle for Dad to be sitting there however many years later with his daughter
06:45that he didn't even know would exist at that time, celebrating a Grammy nomination.
06:50I felt super emotional. My family always wants everyone else to win. We root for one another.'"
06:55Noah didn't win Best New Artist at the 2021 Grammys. The award went to Megan Thee Stallion.
07:01The next year, even though she was no longer a new artist, according to Grammy Rules,
07:05Noah finally released her debut album. Unlike her early singles, which were very pop-heavy,
07:10and sometimes leaned into hip-hop sounds, the hardest part is the singer-songwriter
07:14album that incorporates the sound she grew up around in Nashville.
07:18In an interview with Forbes, Noah reflected on the musical transformation she'd undergone in
07:22these first years of her career. She explained,
07:25"'I found myself and my sound in this album, and really, it was just going back home metaphorically.'"
07:30The album reflected a vulnerability that may have surprised fans who only knew Noah from
07:34viral moments like her VMAs photos with Lil Xan. In the album's opening moments, she sang,
07:41"'I was overcome with the thought that I might not turn 21.'"
07:44Death Cab for Cutie frontman Ben Gibbard worked with Noah on the album, and he told Rolling Stone
07:49in 2022 that he was impressed with his collaborator's willingness to mine her struggle for
07:54songwriting. He said,
07:55"'It's easy to be mysterious. It's easy to be aloof. It's easy to be cool. It's so much harder
08:01to be earnest, and it's so much harder because she's really opening herself up with a lot of
08:05these songs.'"
08:07In 2023, Noah announced on Instagram that she'd gotten engaged. She'd become a muse for fashion
08:13designer Pincus, a man who designs clothing for a brand called Colors. Cyrus modeled some
08:18out-there looks in Paris that January, and when she walked a runway for him in June,
08:22Pincus wrote in the caption of an Instagram post,
08:25"'Proudest fiancé.'"
08:26The engagement announcement took the form of a close-up snapshot of her fancy ring.
08:30She wrote in a since-deleted post,
08:32"'The greatest moment of my entire life was saying yes to spending the rest of ours together.
08:37This past month of being your fiancé and being in our own little world of just us two has been
08:42so perfect, and I wish I could never leave this time.'"
08:45The lengthy caption praised Pincus for his openness and for his willingness to love Noah back,
08:50even despite all she'd been through. She wrote on Instagram,
08:53"'Our life so far is a life I never thought I deserved or would live.
08:57I never thought I'd be looking forward to living as much as I look forward to living with you.'"
09:01Her entry into the world of high fashion marked a new era in Noah's career.
09:05In 2024, she walked for Avilano in a bleached eyebrow-wet look, sharing her love,
09:11gratitude, and praise for creative director Arthur Avilano on Instagram.
09:16Even though she'd spent her entire career trying to make a name for herself separate from her
09:20famous family, Noah found herself once more tied to her family's fate when a reported feud erupted
09:25between herself and her mother. Billy Ray and Tish Cyrus had a rocky relationship that led to
09:30a divorce in 2022. By August 2023, Tish remarried, getting hitched to Prison Break star Dominic
09:37Purcell.
09:38"'I cannot even tell you how amazing he is.'"
09:41To the surprise of some fans, while Miley was there, Noah did not attend their mother's wedding.
09:46Rumors swirled online, with fans discussing the potential cause of the apparent estrangement.
09:50In March 2024, a source spoke with Entertainment Tonight and claimed the reason for the rift was
09:55that Noah was originally the one in a relationship with Purcell. The source alleged,
10:00Noah stopped seeing Dominic and Tish decided to pursue him and did not tell Noah.
10:04Furthermore, they claimed that Noah wasn't the one who chose to skip the wedding.
10:08In fact, the source said she hadn't even been invited. The source claimed to the outlet,
10:12It was Tish who requested security at her wedding to keep Noah out.
10:16If you or anyone you know is struggling with addiction issues,
10:20help is available. Visit the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration website
10:25or contact SAMHSA's National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP 4357.