As a former Disney star, Demi Lovato understands what her friend Miley Cyrus is going through. For the American pop star, it is not fair to hate Cyrus just because she wanted to break free from her child-star image.

Apart from being of the same age, the two singers similarly started their careers with Disney channel. Cyrus played the role of ordinary girl by day and rock star by night in 'Hannah Montana' whereas Lovato starred in several Disney shows including 'As The Bell Rings', 'Camp Rock', and 'Sonny with a Chance'.

However, even if the 21-year-old actress understands the recent antics of Cyrus, she likewise cannot deny that such acts distract people from hearing her truly beautiful voice: "I think she knows what she's doing. A lot of artists take that route of shock value and that's totally fine and that's great, but I think that she has such an incredible voice that's overshadowed by some of the things that she's doing."

In the same interview with Katie Couric, she says that she will love the 'So Undercover' actress regardless of that path which she chose: "You know it's her journey, she's having fun, she's being who she is and will always love her. She's been one of my friends since I was 14, but everyone's on their different journey's right now and she's doing that and having fun, so power to her!"

"I think that the world kind of needs to get over the fact that she was Hannah Montana when she was like 16 or whatever. Same thing with me, but I guess my transition was a little different because I went straight to rehab, but-I didn't twerk, I just went to rehab," adds Lovato who had a short rehabilitation stint.

The 'Give Your Heart A Break' singer also asks America to go easy on her as well as her fellow artists who are transitioning from child stars to adults: "It's something that is just-nobody knows her, and nobody knows who I am, and same with Selena Gomez and Jonas Brothers and everybody that's grown up in front of the public eye. We're adults now. I'm 21 and I'm nowhere near the same person that I was when I was 15 so go a little easy on us America."