I try to be true to myself in every state of being. When I can, I will stand still, work through, sit in, observe, and get to know exactly “who that is” privately. My creative process comes from feeling inspired by life experiences, not pressured by industry standards. I will never put my own plan before nature’s, or jeopardize personal growth for professional advantage.

That said, if it’s a time in my life like now where I am publicly sharing my stories, my music, my art, “who I am” unfolds in front of everyone and we go through all of this together. When people hear my music they hear a fragment of time, something I feel or felt right then. By the time it gets to your ears I may have grown past it, but I am truest to who I am at that very second.

That can be five thousand different colors and shades at the same time. I’m a creative vessel that thrives on change and evolution, I love to feel, and to feel extremes. Of course there’s a little bit of a “never-satisfied artist” that lives inside me that becomes bored easily, so I move through life quickly.

But I have a home base and center I can come back to, a calm and a peace. I can’t be in it for too long but it’s a place to catch my breath. That’s the foundation I have had since the beginning.

–

Losing my home, losing that peace, was very unsettling. I didn’t go back. I felt like my roots got ripped from under me. I was actually working on Black Mirror in South Africa. The day I heard we lost our home, my scene was set at my house in Malibu. My character was having a meltdown panic attack, so needless to say the inspiration was there.

Anne Sewitzky, my director, and I became very close, since going through all of this so far from home, she was really the only mother figure I had. Experiencing that together and in the realness of it all, we created something I think is magical. It’s hard for me to be proud of my work, I rarely walk away satisfied but I’m very proud of what we made. It really tells my story in some dark and funny way as that show does, and as life is.

To lose “everything” at that time—materially, because no lives of people I know and love were lost. Liam and I have also found a new bond underneath all that rubble. Going through a natural disaster, the grief you experience is really unlike any other loss. No more, just different. In our position it feels or looks like everything is replaceable and you can start again, but you can’t buy spirit.

Our place wasn’t filled with expensive, meaningless sнιт, but art—a lot of which I made on my own, and by others, including personal letters and drawings from Heath Ledger, John Kricfalusi, Joan Jett, Murakami, David LaChapelle, and so many others that I respect including our lovely pH๏τographer Ryan McGinley.

–

To read Zach Baron’s Vanity Fair interview with Miley Cyrus

Being someone who takes such pride in individuality and freedom, and being a proud member of the LGBTQ+ community, I’ve been inspired by redefining again what a relationship in this generation looks like. Sєxuality and gender idenтιтy are completely separate from partnership. I wore a dress on my wedding day because I felt like it, I straightened my hair because I felt like it, but that doesn’t make me become some instantly “polite hetero lady.” (PS: Straight women are badᴀss, too.)

My relationship is very special to me, it is my “home.” I feel less misplaced when we are in the same room, no matter where that is, but just because something changes in my relationship doesn’t mean something has to drastically change in my individuality. What Liam and I went through together changed us. I’m not sure without losing Malibu, we would’ve been ready to take this step or ever even gotten married, who can say? But the timing felt right and I go with my heart.

No one is promised the next day, or the next, so I try to be “in the now” as much as possible. If I ever find myself thinking too far ahead, I acknowledge that anxiety and bring myself back into my body and out of my head. Something that helps me, when life is moving so fast that it’s hard to keep up with, is writing. Not just songs, but streams of consciousness. I let myself babble, and in all that junk sometimes there is treasure! Pretty much what I’m doing now.

All the things we have ever learned or experienced are just stored away in the back of our mind. I think it’s important to daydream, to let the thoughts and memories travel in and out, and learn to recognize them. Not only their truth, but their lies. When I write out these thoughts, it’s nice to have a point of reference to see why I acted on certain choices or went down certain paths. It’s all just a way to handle, manage, and process experience.

The way I feel can be so drastic moment to moment, perspective is everything. Time and Place. Here and Now. The now changes it all. In a second everything can change. It can be scary when you’re not the one in the driver seat—inevitably sometimes we lose control. The key for me staying healthy and happy is by being the pilot and not a backseat driver.

Thinking for myself. Sometimes that gets chalked up to an “I don’t give a ҒUCҜ” atтιтude, but that isn’t my narrative. I do give a ҒUCҜ. A lot of them, actually. Sometimes too many. I’m free and fluid with my speech, so by being this honest, I contradict myself sometimes, but like I said in that moment, that is my fullest truth.

I live in acceptance of others and hope everyone gets to feel the freedom that I live in! People like myself have a hard time comprehending a middle ground, I thrive on extremes, but I am learning to live in that sometimes uncomfortable and itchy in-between. I want to live a long life full of love, music, and adventure. I believe balance will get me there. Balance and moderation. (Which sometimes is like a foreign language to me.)

But I am practicing. In that practice will come mistakes but it’ll shape me and I can’t wait to see who it makes me. Like Bowie said, I promise it won’t be boring. How could it be? It’s a story without an ending. Life is like binge-watching a favorite show. What comes next? Can’t sleep until we find out …

By accident, even though there really is no such thing, I have done a weird social experiment. Art imitating life, and vice versa. That’s really what our “Nothing Breaks Like A Heart” music video was all about. The amount of disruption it causes to see a “female” living outside of societal norm. Where men can be praised, women are frowned upon. I’ve experienced that first-hand.

The panic it causes for me to perform wearing a men’s Gucci suit, unzipped, baring my chest, versus coming out of my H๏τel greeting fans in a skirt with long, highlighted, blown-out hair. The “gold stars” I receive for being “pretty” and for following the rules are really discouraging and uninspiring, but that also fuels me.

It inspires me to continue to challenge boundaries; and be myself, even if some days I know exactly who that is more than other days. Who I am now is a mosaic of who I have ever been. How I feel can be drastic but life is fun, thrilling, and exhilarating this way. This year, I wanted to live carefree but not careless, if that makes any sense.

I’m so thankful to my loyal fans who have been so supportive of every space I’ve occupied. Everything I do has a message and they’ve helped spread these philosophies. My fashion statements recently have been described as more “tame” than those in the past, but I actually think I’m challenging the system more than ever.

Choosing to live as a sustainable vegan activist means wearing more vintage (less waste; loving pieces for longer), playing with the newest eco-materials and technology, and making custom vegan pieces with some of my favorite designers, like Louis Vuitton, Celine, Saint Laurent, Viktor & Rolf, Isabel Marant, Thierry Mugler, Gaultier, Vivienne Westwood and of course Stella McCartney—we went to the Met Ball together to use that platform to encourage cruelty-free fashion.

To read Zach Baron’s Vanity Fair interview with Miley Cyrus

I’ve said it before, and in this I will always be certain: if you think I’m a rebel without a cause, you aren’t paying enough attention.

More Great Stories from Vanity Fair

— North West’s “boyfriend” and the logical endpoint of reality as we know it

— Is Trump the only person in America with decent work-life balance?

— Could Kamala Harris crush Joe Biden in a 2020 cage match?

— New-music alert: folk for the 21st century, and a refresh of “Poker Face”-era pop

— From 1999 to 2019: how Oscar fashion has changed over 20 years