Miley Cyrus Wants You To Call Her "Mother"
The Grammy winner is embracing the freedom and empowerment that the label—a term of endearment popularized by the Internet—has to offer.
Yes, Miley Cyrus is "mother." At just 31 years old, Cyrus is already a veteran of the entertainment industry. Acting, modeling, singing, she's done it all. From her Hannah Montana persona to her Bangerz era, Cyrus has become dozens of different versions of herself throughout her expansive career. She's done youthful rebellion, as seen most prominently in her "Wrecking Ball" era, and she's done female rage, but now, she just wants to be free.
After decades of pushing the boundaries of what a female pop artist can be, Cyrus won her first Grammy Award in 2024, where she was awarded Best Record of the Year for Flowers. Cyrus performed at the award show and has since opened up about the revitalizing, fortifying effects of that show on her own psyche.
"I really wanted 'Flowers' to be a celebration of bravery, because I perform out of fear. I didn’t always have the fear of performing that I have now," she told W Magazine in a recent interview. "Before I went onstage, right as that curtain was about to lift, I was screaming at the top of my lungs, 'I am free!' When I was 20 or 21, it might have sounded more like, 'I don’t give a fuck what people think. I’m just being me.'"
Following her Grammy win in 2024, a new era is on the horizon for Cyrus. This time, she's embracing the "mother" mantle that many of her fans and Internet followers have bestowed upon her. For Gen Zers, "mother" refers to a female icon in pop culture, and often refers to figures like Cyrus with a sense of reverence and unbridled pride in the accomplishments, impact, and beauty—inside and out—that many of our favorite female celebrities embody. Although the term was derived from the "Black and Latino L.G.B.T.Q. ballroom scene, a queer subculture in which members are organized into so-called houses often led by a mother," per cultural research by The New York Times, it has taken on a whole new meaning in pop culture today.
For Miley Cyrus, the "mother" label embodies a wealth of opportunities for female celebrities and represents anything and everything a woman wants to be. "The word “mother” is the most all-encompassing word. The mother can be RuPaul; the mother can be Beyoncé. Our fans call us mother," she said in the same W Magazine interview. Cyrus, who has several mothers in her life, namely her godmother, Dolly Parton, and her own mom, who fans refer to as "Mama Tish," has always been surrounded by supportive female figures. Mama Tish has acted as her manager, hair and makeup team, stylist, tour manager, and seamstress throughout Cyrus' career. Her close relationship with her mother has also served as a point of shared experience and bonding throughout her friendship with fellow "mother," and close friend, Beyoncé. Ms. Tina, as fans call her, is Beyoncé's mother first and foremost, but she has also acted as a manager akin to Mama Tish throughout the "Texas Hold 'Em" singer's career.
Over 10 years ago, Cyrus founded the Happy Hippie Foundation, which supports both the LGBTQ and houseless youth. Speaking on how the foundation has grown and evolved alongside her, Cyrus told W Magazine: "Now I am renaming it the Miley Cyrus Foundation so the platform can facilitate more adult conversations. It’s not that Happy Hippie is over; it is just kind of growing up. Actually, the Miley Cyrus Foundation is the mother to Happy Hippie. I’m calling it the mother foundation." She continued, and said that she hopes to model the restructuring of her foundation so it resembles that of a true family, as seen in ballroom culture. "Celebrating and honoring the legacy of incredible mothers, whether it’s Ms. Tina or Mama Tish, is really the mission of the Miley Cyrus Foundation. With the word mother we can talk about the planet, we can talk about agriculture, we can talk about medicine, we can talk about injustices, reproductive care."
As a 31-year-old "mother," Grammy-winning artist, philanthropist, and community advocate, Cyrus is embracing a truer version of herself through her music while also working to truly become a "mother" to the communities around her and represent the pinnacle of what celebrities with resources like hers can do to change lives for the better.
