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Miley Cyrus is no stranger to the pressures of fame. If anyone knows about the lasting damage that can be caused by a childhood in the spotlight, it’s the former Hannah Maontana.

And it’s likely for that reason that she’s encouraging fans and the media to ease off on Justin Bieber.

Miley defended Justin in a recent interview for an Australian TV show, saying that the troubled pop star simply needs “time to grow up.”

“I think people need to sit and think of a time in their life when they weren’t proud of who they were,” said Cyrus, possibly referring to Bieber’s racist videos, shot while he was in his teens. “Imagine if that [time in your life] was completely exploited and everyone had their opinion.”

It’s a valid point – most of us should probably be grateful that we didn’t live out our adolescences on the world stage. Then again, most of us probably never did anything as awful or embarrassing as Bieber’s bigoted “jokes.”

We understand Miley’s argument that there’s an unimaginable amount of pressure on young stars who have yet to even figure who they are as people.

Then again, the millions of dollars and worldwide fame are probably pretty nice consolations, so it’s hard to feel too bad for Miley and the Biebs.