Miley Cyrus Honored as Youngest-Ever Disney Legend, Jokes About Being “Created in a Lab”

Miley Cyrus has repeatedly told us that she’s more than capable of buying herself flowers, but if she wants to be honored as a Disney Legend, she’ll need the House of Mouse to do it. And that’s exactly what happened this weekend at the production company’s gala awards ceremony.

Cyrus was inducted as the youngest-ever Disney Legend in a ceremony at D23 on Sunday, the event closing out the studio’s annual convention, where she declared, “I stand here still proud to have been Hannah Montana.”

The 31-year-old is now a two-time Grammy winner and A-list performer, but she first found her place in the spotlight thanks to the role she played on the Disney Channel show of the same name from 2006 to 2011.

“I’m definitely going to cry,” Cyrus promised—and then made good on—when she took the stage following an introduction from country singer Lainey Wilson, who shared that her first gig was performing as a Hannah Montana impersonator. A person impersonating a character who leads a double life as a normal kid and a musical superstar? Meta!

Cyrus challenged the squeaky-clean Disney kid stereotype through the years, posing in just a white bedsheet on the cover of Vanity Fair in 2008, forcing everyone to learn what salvia was after she took a bong hit of it in 2010, and more. She joked about her so-called scandalous image while accepting the honor.

“There was a buzz in that Burbank Disney office where it’s rumored that they create all of us Disney Kids,” she said. “I definitely wasn’t created in a lab, but if I was, there must have been a bug in the system that caused me to malfunction somewhere between the years of 2013 and 2016.”

Cyrus was one of 14 honorees Sunday, alongside fellow actors Jamie Lee Curtis, Angela Bassett, and Harrison Ford; host Kelly Ripa; filmmakers James L. Brooks, James Cameron, and Frank Oz; composer John Williams; costumer Colleen Atwood; producer Martha Blanding; artist and writer Steve Ditko; animator Mark Henn; and theme park designer Joe Rohde.

“I’m gonna let everybody get on a little Disney Legend secret,” Cyrus said. “I’m the one that tells you what you’re not supposed to know. And what I want to say, is that legends get scared, too. I’m scared right now, but the difference is we do it anyway, and all of you can do that every single day. It’s legendary to be afraid and do it anyway. There is no such thing as failure when you try.”

Far from hitting her past as Hannah Montana with a wrecking ball (because, see, she sang the song “Wrecking Ball”), Cyrus embraced her star-making role in her speech, crediting the experience for helping her climb to her current superstar status.

“In so many ways, this award is dedicated to Hannah and all of her amazing loyal fans, and to everyone who has made my dream a reality,” Cyrus said. “To quote the legend herself, ‘This is the life.’”