If there's one popstar that literally no-one has managed to escape over the summer, it's Miley Cyrus.
It's been two years since her record Can't Be Tamed (as good as it is) was considered a misfire in her mission to shed Hannah Montana's wig-swapping shadow. However, in hindsight the album inspired the former Disney star to push even further away from her tween-friendly beginnings to really make a statement on her position as a young adult.
"It's not a transition," Miley explains in her MTV documentary The Movement, which aired in the US last night (October 2). "People always like to call it a transition. I'm the same human - I have the same heart that I had five years ago. Everything about me is the same. Same skin, same human."
Pop music could quite possibly be one of the hardest environments in entertainment to grow up in. As well as pleasing record execs and radio bosses, teen stars are trying to forge their own adult identity under the watchful eye of the world's press, opinionated music fans and those dreaded parenting groups.
It's fair to say Miley really went for it for her own 'evolution'. If grinding Robin Thicke at the MTV VMAs while using a foam finger suggestively wasn't enough, riding a wrecking ball while naked in a music video certainly topped it off.
"I'm not one to please anybody," Cyrus notes in the documentary, "but with this record there's a lot of pressure, because I haven't had one out in two years". It's fascinating that someone can be so savvy, ambitious and fearless at the age of 20 the way Miley Cyrus is. It's this confidence, self-assured demeanor and headstrong attitude that makes her a viable role model.
The Nashville-born starlet is acutely aware of where she wants her career to head, but isn't ignorant of her tween beginnings. "I was a lot of people's first album," she says. "I was a lot of people's first idol." Cyrus worked hard to be that particular child-friendly role model. "For five years of my life I learned I had to be focussed," she says in The Movement, revealing that she would do 4 hours' worth of homework before she'd go and film Hannah Montana for eight hours.
Her mother and manager Tish Cyrus reflects further on her daughter missing out on her teen years, but says that her father Billy Ray Cyrus's fame put her in good stead for it. "It makes her understand what's real," Tish notes. "What's show and what's real life."
This feels wholly apparent throughout The Movement. Miley is often excitable, clear-minded and ambitious about her stage shows and image, but after moving to a small apartment in Philly to write songs for her new album Bangerz, she relishes being able to go to the park and "pick up dog poop" like a normal person.
What's more, it's refreshing to see a young woman in pop so in control of her career in an industry dominated by powerful men and 'business first' attitudes. While rehearsing for Jimmy Kimmel and Good Morning America she challenges the musical director over a "weird" sounding note during 'We Can't Stop'. She's forceful and passionate about it being perfect, but never comes across as a bratty diva.
"I am a control freak," she says with a glint of steely determination in her eyes. Miley is fully aware of the impact her shows will have and nothing is left to chance. As she describes her now infamous VMAs outing: "It's a strategic hot mess."
What's the drive behind this eagerness to shock and entertain? Miley's own pop idols Britney Spears and Madonna. During a conversation in the studio with Spears, Cyrus notes that she wants to make pop exciting. "I want to give people that again. Music videos that are out of control." Beneath the twerking, side-tongue and skimpy outfits is a pop fan aspiring to become the type of idol who excited her younger self 10 years ago.
But with extravagant and suggestive performances comes the criticism - much of what we've seen following the VMAs and 'Wrecking Ball' video. Parents who are used to their children watching Miley Stewart on the Disney Channel turning into a pop princess after school were not happy.
"How many times have we seen this play out in pop music?" asks Miley. "You're always going to make people talk. You might as well make them talk for two weeks, rather than two seconds." Even at a young age, Miley seems defiant against her detractors and can whip the over-sensationalism into perspective, noting: "If I really wanted to come out and do a raunchy sex show, I wouldn't have come out as a damn bear!"
What The Movement shows is that Miley Cyrus is a determined young woman who has a clear vision of her career ahead. Her mind is focussed, her critics don't bother her and she's willing to work hard to become the very best. It's these qualities that make the woman behind the popstar a serious role model for today's youth.
"The world thinks they know this girl," Pharrell Williams notes. "My thing to you is, don't be fooled!"
Miley Cyrus's The Movement will air in the UK on MTV tonight (October 3) at 8pm.
Digital Spy