Miley Cyrus’ Baby Sister Has Come A Long Way Since Hannah Montana

Miley may have started acting at eight years old, but Noah actually got her break when she was younger. Noah was only three years old when she appeared in Doc. This was a Christian-themed medical drama, starring her father, Billy Ray Cyrus, in the titular role. She played a character named Gracie Hebert in half a dozen episodes of the show.

She has her father to thank for giving her a penchant for music, too. “My dad always had me sing alongside him while he played guitar,” Noah told Paper magazine in 2016. “He taught me how to harmonize to an old song of his, ‘Missing You.’” She added, “Writing is the best way to get your mind clear. It’s also a great way to explain your past or what you hope for the future.”

But she also had a clear love of acting, just like her sister did back in the day. And when Miley got her own Disney Channel show in 2006, Hannah Montana, Noah came along for the ride. She played various roles both in the show and in the 2009 film Hannah Montana: The Movie. In the end, Noah appeared in six episodes of the show.

Suffice it to say that it was Noah’s big sister who was in the limelight the most at that time. Nevertheless, the younger sibling’s turns in the show also led her to bigger and better things. In particular, Noah nabbed further big-screen roles that set her on the path to potentially becoming as famous as Miley.

In 2008, for example, Noah appeared in the straight-to-DVD movie Mostly Ghostly, developed from a book by R.L. Stine. And the film’s director and Hannah Montana co-creator Rich Correll went on to tell People that year, “[Noah] is a real natural in front of the camera, just like her sister.” Her older co-star said, “Noah may be 8, but she has a 15-year-old mind. She is very outgoing and precocious.”

It was also in 2008 that Noah took on one of the most important roles of her early career: she voiced the title character in the English dub of the Hayao Miyasaki movie Ponyo. And she was in some prestigious company, as that version of the film also featured the voices of Cate Blanchett, Matt Damon, Tina Fey, Liam Neeson, and Noah’s fellow child actor Frankie Jonas.

“I got involved with the film when my mom came in my room, and she was just like, ‘You got a part for this little fish named Ponyo, and you will also be doing the movie with Frankie Jonas.’ I was really excited that I was going to do [Ponyo] with my best friend,” Noah said while doing promotion for the movie.

And, for a while, certain corners of the internet speculated that Noah and Frankie were romantically entwined — as absurd as that may sound. Fuel was added to the fire in particular when Noah tweeted the message, “I love you, Frankie! forever and always.” But she was only nine years old then — much too young to properly date.

From 2009 to 2010, Noah ran a web show with her best friend Emily Grace Reaves. With the help of the adults around them, the pair began designing a range of clothes for kids, too. And while there were nasty rumors that Noah was being made to design “lingerie for children,” no one need have feared: the company she worked with merely designed cute tutu-style dresses.

And Noah stuck with the kids’ fashion industry for a while: in 2011, at the age of 11, she became the face of Stoney Clover Lane Bracelets. That wasn’t all she was doing, though. At the time, she was also frequently attending premieres and events with her famous sister, who was now making movies such as the teen drama The Last Song.

As Noah entered her teenage years, her love of animals became more and more clear. And while the Cyrus family were already big supporters of rescue dog charities, Noah went one further. Specifically, she used her 13th birthday to raise funds for NYCLASS, a charity trying to help horses being made to pull carriages in New York City.

Noah also encouraged her fans to donate $13 to NYCLASS instead of sending her presents. “When I first learned about the inhumane treatment of horses in New York City, I was devastated,” the New York Daily News quoted her as saying during that period. “As a rider, I would never put my horse at risk in dangerous midtown traffic.”

Noah’s love of riding and horses started to become a big driving force in her life. “I want to go to the Olympics for riding and then possibly become a trainer,” she told Teen Vogue in 2013. “Maybe I’ll sing and act when I’m older, but right now, it’s just about the horses.” However, Noah was growing up fast.

And, with the help of her sister, she was experimenting with new looks. “[Miley] comes to my house a lot and she’ll go in my closet,” she told Us Weekly in July 2013, “and tell me what things I should keep and what things I shouldn’t keep.” By December of that year, she had dyed her hair black and started experimenting with edgier styles. She hasn't looked back, either.

And as Miley Cyrus turned more and more into a figure of controversy with her wild-child antics, some of the not-always-pleasant publicity rubbed off on Noah. For one, the two sisters were rumored to have entered a nightclub together while Noah was still in middle school. There were also suggestions that Noah had gotten tattoos. Basically, people started to talk.

“At this point, Noah is a teenage train wreck in the making, thanks to her sister,” an anonymous source told the International Business Times in 2014. And it certainly seemed that people were trying to say that Noah was doing her best to imitate Miley’s misbehavior. Especially when she appeared alongside Miley on her elder sister’s “Bangerz” tour dressed in a skintight cat outfit.

And yet, no train wreck occurred. Even Miley, not known for restraint, insisted that she wanted to keep her sister away from the seedier side of showbiz. “She’s really into sports. She really loves horses, so I’m going to keep her on that and keep her innocence as long as I can,” she told Australian radio station 2DayFM in 2014.

And Noah seemed to be choosing fairly sensible ways to advance her career. For example, she continued to advocate for animals by appearing in a gruesome but effective PETA commercial that saw her stand up against the practice of dissecting small animals in high school classes. As 2016 rolled around, though, Noah continued to share the odd headline with her sister.

In particular, the media commented on how her looks had changed and that she was now a “mini-me” of Miley. But she was about to start going solo in a big way. In the closing months of 2016, moreover, Noah launched her pop career with the song “Make Me (Cry).” British star Labrinth produced and featured on the track — and the consensus was that it was a total banger.

Noah has since worked hard on her music. In 2018 she released her first EP, Good Cry. This was followed by a second EP in 2020, The End of Everything, and a third in 2021, People Don't Change. This inevitably led to a full-length album, The Hardest Part, which was released on September 16, 2022. The highlight? Noah was nominated for Best New Artist at the 2021 Grammy Awards. If she carries on like this, Noah will soon give Miley — and a certain family friend — a run for their money.

Starting around 2006, people started to notice that Miley Cyrus and Dolly Parton were making more and more appearances together. But back then, Miley was still known as the plucky child star in Hannah Montana and the daughter of country legend Billy Ray Cyrus. She hadn't become the headline-making wrecking ball icon of today. Fans wanted to know what kept bringing these opposites together — and Dolly Parton finally gave them unexpected answers.

Dolly Parton and Miley Cyrus collaborated on their first project in 2006. It was for an episode of the Disney Channel show Hannah Montana, and Dolly played Miley's fictional aunt, Aunt Dolly. On her first day on set, Dolly made a huge impact on the teenage Miley. “I was only 15," Miley recalled of the day on set. "I had zit cream all over my face and my pajamas were on and we all had our backpacks going to school. And she came in a pink silk robe, and her hair barely could fit through the doorway.” Yeah, that's Dolly!

This wasn't a chance encounter. Dolly Parton and Miley's dad, Billy Ray Cyrus, met years prior while they were grinding out huge hits in the country music scene. "I worked with Billy Ray for all those years, when he had 'Achy Breaky Heart,'" she said. Something about him stood out to Dolly.

"He worked with me on some shows we did in the early days. He opened some of my shows. We just got to know each other. I wrote a song called 'Romeo' and had him in a video. We just kind of gelled, 'cause we're both country kids." Dolly brought her energy to Miley's life, too. "[People] say, 'Don't meet your heroes,' but that doesn't apply to her," Miley said of Dolly.

"When you meet her, she's as incredible as you would have ever dreamed; she's even better. I mean, every single person on set, in a crowd, going to the grocery store..." Miley said. It's worth noting, however, that Dolly treats everyone this way. "Everywhere I go she pulls out a Dolly hat and hands it to somebody," Miley said, recalling fan encounters with Dolly. "I'm like, 'How many of these Dolly hats [does she have]?'"

Aunt Dolly appeared in three episodes of Hannah Montana, but the "Jolene" singer knew Miley was so much more than the daughter of Billy Ray. “The kids love her because she’s Hannah Montana, but what people don’t realize about her is she is such a fantastic singer and songwriter,” she said in 2008. “She writes songs like she’s 40 years old! She’s really deep.”

“I think she’s gonna have a big career after that show is off the air," Dolly Parton continued. "I know I’m partial... But I’m amazed at the talent that child has and the effect she has on people. That little Miley Cyrus… she’s like a little Elvis.” Now that's high praise — and Dolly has been proved totally right. Still, fans were surprised when the pair appeared together in 2010.

In 2010 the two linked up in Dolly Parton's Pigeon Forge, Tennessee theme park. Dollywood features slides, rides, and live music, and it's a highlight of many county music fans' visits to the Great Smoky Mountains. The park was celebrating its 25th anniversary, and Dolly had something special planned for fans.

Dolly and Miley performed their first duet: the 1973 hit "Jolene." While the song's lyrics paint the haunting picture of a woman begging another not to woo her man away, the song actually had a much more innocent inspiration: "One night, I was on stage, and there was this beautiful little girl — she was probably eight years old at the time..." Dolly explained.

She continued, "And she had this beautiful red hair, this beautiful skin, these beautiful green eyes, and she was looking up at me, holding, you know, for an autograph. I said, 'Well, you're the prettiest little thing I ever saw. So what is your name?' And she said, 'Jolene.' And I said, 'Jolene. Jolene. Jolene. Jolene.' I said, 'That is pretty. That sounds like a song. I'm going to write a song about that.'"

After Dolly's and Miley's duet, the crowd went wild. Even Billy Ray couldn't believe it. “I was blown away when they did ‘Jolene,’ he said. “It was amazing, it was just a moment of going, ‘Wow, listen to how great they sound together.” After the performance, Dolly broke news to the crowd.

In front of the Dollywood crowd, Dolly referred to herself as Miley's "Fairy Godmother." This may have been news to those in attendance, this wasn't a new title in the Cyrus household. “I've known her since she was a baby,” Dolly said in 2009. “Her father's a friend of mine, and when she was born, he said, ‘You just have to be her godmother.'"

Yet Miley's critics also wanted Dolly to answer for the young adult's "wild side." "People didn’t want her to grow up," Dolly recalled. "They got mad at her. One day she’d had enough and told me, ‘I need to murder Hannah Montana in order for people to accept who I really am.'" She continued, "I was holding my breath, hoping that people didn’t totally crucify her." Of course, Miley turned to her for help.

“The girl can sing. The girl is smart," Dolly said of the controversial persona Miley wore in the early 2010s. "She doesn’t have to be so drastic... But I will respect her choices. I did it my way, so why can’t she do it her way?” She clarified that she's not interested in "controlling" Miley's life. "I’ve told her some things that I think are valuable and that she uses, but I’d rather live an example," Dolly said. "[I’d rather] be an example rather than just try to tell somebody to do this, do that because I don’t think that’s right."

"Everybody’s different. You’ve got your own journey." Dolly confessed that even she isn't so innocent. “Lord, I’ve done everything, and what I ain’t done, I intend to,” she said. “She’s going to do that, too. But Miley’s smart; Miley knows what she’s doing. I know we think she doesn’t, and she might not every minute, but I still know that she’s got good stuff in her.” A 2020 moment showcased their relationship.

When Dolly wanted Miley to perform a song on her Holly Dolly Christmas album, "She faxed me,” Miley said. “She gets upset when you don’t respond... She makes physical records and so she had to get it turned in... I was singing about Christmas in the middle of L.A. summer, and only for Dolly.” She added, “She’s who you want to be, not just the way that she is as an artist and as an entertainer because… she’s lasted. Her career has been so lasting and incredible, but she’s just the best living angel on Earth.”