Miley, Hannah, and Ashley Too: Uncovering the Mystery of the Pop Persona

Sometimes, our favorite pop stars aren’t always who we think they are.

Written by Myah Taylor
Illustrated by Ayesha Din

When I was a kid, I thought I knew Miley Cyrus — not just the surface level details of her life or her professional work, but the real her. For years, I thought Cyrus was truly who Disney and the media presented her to be: a wholesome, southern girl with a big heart and unwavering Christian faith whose dreams of making it to Hollywood became actualized.

However, I was wrong, and so were the millions of other kids-turned-adolescents asking the same questions that I was after that fateful, twerking-filled performance at the 2013 MTV Video Music Awards. 

What happened to the old Miley?
What happened to Hannah Montana? 

But Hannah Montana wasn’t real, and neither was Miley Stewart, the girl behind the wig. Over time, Hannah has become less of a reality and more of what she always was — a character on a children’s television show. Maybe there never was an “old” Miley as much as there was a concealed Miley hidden away by suits.

This past summer, Netflix released an episode of “Black Mirror” starring Cyrus entitled “Rachel, Jack and Ashley Too.” When I watched the episode, I felt exposed as a once-hysterical fan that fed into the lies of the Hollywood machine, and Cyrus was revealed as one of its victims. 

The episode centers around Rachel (Angourie Rice), a teenage girl obsessed with pop star Ashley O (Cyrus). Like Miley Stewart’s alter ego, Ashley O sports a wig and portrays a polished, cutesy image. But it’s revealed that this bubbly persona is not actually her own.

I often find “Black Mirror” unsettling because of its realism in depicting the threats of technology and human frailty on society, but this particular episode hit close to home for me. 

The episode opens with a googly-eyed Rachel watching Ashley O’s music video on TV. In the video, reminiscent of Cyrus’ sugary sweet performances from her Hannah Montana years, Ashley sports a wide smile and dances to finely-tuned choreography. Meanwhile Rachel, reminiscent of a younger me, keeps her eyes glued to the screen, making it evident that she idolizes the pink-haired pop star.

Ashley O creates music of the Top 40 variety, making her sound a product that is both easy to reproduce and easy to consume for her target demographic. After the premiere of Ashley’s new video for her hit single “On a Roll,” the pop star makes an announcement that is perfectly on brand: the release of a new “Ashley Too” doll.

This new AI doll is essentially Ashley O in robot form. It sings, it gives advice, it holds conversations, it sounds just like Ashley—and it reinforces that perfect manufactured image.

A lonely teen who just lost her mother, Rachel asks her dad for the new “Ashley Too” doll for her birthday. The toy quickly becomes Rachel’s best friend and confidant. Each day when Rachel returns from school, she immediately turns to “Ashley Too” rather than engage in human interaction with her sister Jack or her father. And when the school talent show rolls around, it’s Ashley Too that coaches Rachel through her dance routine and gives her the confidence to take the stage. 

I was disturbed by Rachel’s fixation with Ashley O and her deep connection with the pop star’s digital replica. But then I remembered that, to an extent, I was Rachel at one point. I completely idolized Hannah Montana and the Miley Cyrus of “old.” It was her face and her blonde wig plastered over my walls. It was always her music blasting through my speakers. And, once upon a time, I begged my parents for a singing Barbie doll modeled after my favorite pop star.

But the sparkly, bubbly songstresses that Rachel and I both saw on the surface in our respective idols was all a facade, an act to sell a persona, and most importantly, records.

Behind the scenes — the episode and in Cyrus’s own life — was a girl fighting  for creative control and a general sense of identity.

“I’ve never gotten to make a record like [Bangerz],” Cyrus told Cosmopolitan in a 2013 interview, “because Disney’s always been on my back saying, ‘You’ve got to promote the TV show in two months, so make sure your record’s done … and when you promote your record, can you promote the show, the movie, and the Hannah Montana record?’ I was basically carrying two people’s careers and trying to make mine the priority.”

Disney had Cyrus on lockdown — complete control of her image — and Ashley O was being drugged by her aunt Catherine in order to maintain a positive and bubbly disposition so that she could keep making bubblegum-pop tracks.

While Disney may not have drugged Cyrus, the company’s control of her public image and physical appearance had negative effects on her mental health and self perception.

“I was told for so long what a girl is supposed to be from being on [Hannah Montana],” Cyrus told Marie Claire in 2015. “I was made to look like someone that I wasn’t, which probably caused some body dysmorphia because I had been pretty every day for so long, and then when I wasn’t on the show, it was like, ‘Who the f—- am I?”

The story of Ashley O, and Ashley Too for that matter, takes unexpected turns and asks ethical questions about releasing music without an artist’s consent and the practice of using holograms on concert tours.

After showing signs of rebellion, Ashley is put into a coma by her manager aunt. While the pop star is unconscious, her aunt and production team plan on writing a new Ashley O album, using pre-recorded samples of Ashley’s voice — and her brain waves. Later on, fans distraught over Ashley’s comatose state are comforted by the announcement that Ashley’s image and likeness will be used on a hologram stadium tour as the star remains in the hospital. 

Then, things get a little crazy. Somehow, a part of Ashley’s conscience is able to manifest in Rachel’s Ashley Too doll. Through this doll, Ashley reveals the truth to her biggest fan: everything surrounding her sound and public image has been a lie. After this bombshell, Rachel, Jack, and Ashley Too embark on a mission to save the actual Ashley O from her slumber.

Ashley O eventually finds her freedom, later performing a rendition of Nine Inch Nails’ “Head Like a Hole” at a nightclub. The singer, clad in all black, jumps into a crowd of rowdy fans as the episode closes. 

After five years of Hannah Montana, Miley escaped too — just in ways that many of us never could have anticipated. 

Ashley Too’s ability to channel the real Ashley O was shocking, and the methods the pop star’s aunt took to control her and the media narrative were appalling. But the way Rachel had initially put Ashley O on a pedestal stood out to me most because I had done the same thing to Miley.

For a while, I was in denial that the Miley Cyrus we know today was underneath her Disney persona all along. The weed-smoking, foul-mouthed free spirit seemed like a lost soul, a good girl gone bad. But as I watched this episode, I understood Cyrus’s struggle (what she’s supposedly been trying to tell us all along), and I realized how little we really know about our favorite pop stars or celebrities.

They entertain us, they stun us with their impeccable fashion and talent, and they become fixations of our childhoods. But underneath the squeaky-clean, sweet personas they may project, they just might be women or men who “can’t be tamed.”

As two fans leave the nightclub following Ashley O’s edgier performance, they complain about how they don’t like this “new Ashley” or her new sound. But based on my own experiences with Miley’s transition, the truth is that these fans never knew Ashley at all.