Miley Cyrus Vows To Stay a Virgin

May 2 2009, Published 12:49 p.m. ET

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She may have a 20-year old model boyfriend on her arm but Miley Cyrus is walking down the road paved by pop stars before her (hello Britney Spears and Jessica Simpson) by publicly vowing to not have sex until she is married.

“I want to keep my virginity until I marry,” she explained to the UK’s Daily Mail. “I was brought up in a Christian family.”

Asked about the Vanity Fair controversy over some Lolita-like photos of her wrapped in nothing but a sheet, Cyrus chalks it up to growing pains: “It's hard growing up in the spotlight and I'm changing. I can't be the 12-year-old who just moved to LA for ever. I'm having a great time doing what I do, but I'm also going to stumble and fall. Having my parents close helps.”

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“People mention child performers who have gone off the rails, but there are also stable people like Jodie Foster. She was a child star and look where she is now. She called to give me advice which was great.”

While she’s only sixteen, she’s already shelling out some career advice herself, especially to her nine-year old sister Noah who is already hitting the audition circuit. “So many tell me they are here for new show castings and they'll have their hair and make-up done, ready to be cast - yet they're just nine or ten years old. My sister Noah is nine and she's one of those girls. She'll come home and say: ‘Oh, I don't think the casting director thought I was pretty,’ which is heartbreaking.”