The evolution of Miley – from Hannah to horror!

In the beginning, there was Hannah . . .

Billy Ray’s little girl became a worldwide sensation in Disney’s Hannah Montana, in which Miley played a goofy, lovable tween with a pop star alter ego.

But, as all child stars are wont to do, Miley soon felt the need to shed Hannah’s iconic blonde wig and develop a name for herself outside Hannah’s shadow.

So she released her own album (the aptly named Breakout), and Hannah’s fans became Miley’s fans. And our little girl started to grow up (and dare we say it?) blossom

And then she grew up some more ...

And even got engaged! She seemed right on track for avoiding the cataclysmic meltdowns of the Lindsays and Britneys of the world. But then things started to get a little weird. There was some haircutting:  

 There was Maxim.

 There was a little tongue ... 

And enough selfies to make Justin Bieber blush . . .

But then, most bizarrely of all, there came the “twerking”. For those out of the loop, twerking (according to Urban Dictionary) is “the rhythmic gyrating of the lower extremities in a lascivious manner with the intent to elicit sexual arousal.

And Miley crowned herself the queen of the twerk . . . Which all culminated in the, as one British newspaper put it, “childhood-ruining” VMA performance in New York last night. Which kind of looked a little something like this: 

If you haven’t seen it yet, here’s the entire inexplicable, tongue-, twerk- and teddy bear-filled five minutes of it:

Your reaction was probably similar to the Smith family’s, no?

-Kirstin Buick

Images: twitter.com/MileyCyrus; facebook.com/MileyCyrus; instagram.com/mileycyrus, facebook.com/HannahMontana