Miley Cyrus "didn't have time for friends" during her time as a child star

She told W Magazine: "It's a place to celebrate the journey of both being on and graduating from Disney. It was a great, safe experience overall. People have 50- or 60-year-long careers, but mine has been close to 20 years, and I'm 31.

"I have been in the public for more of my life than I haven't. They say that the creative adult is the child who survived. I worked really hard as a child. I didn't go to prom. I didn't go to dances.

"I didn't have so much of that social experience or time for friends.

"Disney, they were doing very well off of the amount of work that I was putting in as a child. I don't have any bad feelings about that. It's just the truth. And so I think they have to give me this award."

The 'Flowers' hitmaker was just 12 when she was chosen out of more than 1,000 hopefuls to star in the series that followed the adventures of a schoolgirl living a double life as a pop star.

The sitcom - which aired from 2006 until 2011 - spawned a sell-out stadium tour, a cinematic film and allowed Miley to launch a singing career in her own right but she insisted that gaining induction into the Disney Hall of Fame is more of a "celebration" with her fans than anything else.

She said: "I'm excited to celebrate that with the fans.

"Something I wanted to talk about with you is celebration versus competition, because competition is really of no interest to me. I don't think of other artists as opponents.

"Artists are not the same as athletes, playing a zero-sum game and keeping a score. There isn't a score in art."

The Grammy Award-winning star has become the corporation's youngest-ever recipient of the Disney Legend award and will be inducted alongside the likes of 'Wakanda Forever' actress Angela Bassett and 'Star Wars' actor Harrison Ford at a ceremony in August.

Other recipients of Disney Legend status over the years have included 'Mary Poppins stars Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke, as well as late 'Bedknobs and Broomsticks' actress Angela Lansbury and singer Sir Elton John, who composed the music for 'The Lion King'