Millennial icon of overexposure Miley Cyrus has announced she has quit walking the red carpet starting with Monday’s (AEST) Emmy Awards.

The former Disney actress and pop star, notorious for her barely-there outfits, first indicated she would be hanging up her boots in an interview with Elle magazine this month.

“Why, when people are starving, am I on a carpet that’s red?” she mused.

The move may come as a surprise to followers of Cyrus’ increasingly extravagant, revealing and scandalous red carpet finery in the past few years.

Blowing kisses

Speaking on USA’s Today show, Cyrus explained the awkward disconnect between the images printed in glossy magazines and the reality for stars walking the red carpet.

Cyrus performs at the MTV Music Awards last year. Photo: Getty

She described being yelled at and directed by the swarms of paparazzi.

“Especially women, we get yelled at to blow them a kiss,” she said.

“I don’t feel like blowing you a kiss … like what’s going on? Who are you? And then you’re just kind of putting yourself out there for people to talk.”

The 23-year-old, a highly accomplished pop singer and actress for her age, said the decision to quit was driven by her realisations about people living poverty and the extravagance of her red carpet appearances.

“It’s like a skit,” she said of the whole experience. “Like Zoolander.”

But there’s no doubt the performer will be missed by paparazzi and viewers alike, especially after bringing an element of surprise to the often-safe fashion parade in previous years.

Growing up in the spotlight

Beginning her career on the popular Disney Channel show Hannah Montana, Cyrus was thrust into the world of celebrity from an early age.

The singer caused a furore with this space-themed costume in 2015. Photo: Getty

Her transformation from an innocent Tennessee tween to a Los Angeles pop star was documented in the song Party in the USA, which described her arriving in LA for the first time.

“It’s definitely not a Nashville party / Cause all I see are stilettos / I guess I never got the memo,” she sang of the intimidating celebrity scene.

From then on, the desire for Cyrus to prove herself as an adult – and not a Disney star – was evident.

The evolution was particularly obvious in the video clip for her 2013 hit Wrecking Ball, which saw Cyrus swinging from a rope, completely naked.

At the time, Cyrus said the nudity was meant to symbolise her fragile emotional state.

“If people get past the point that I’m naked and you actually look at me … you can tell that I actually look more broken than even the song sounds,” she told a US radio program in 2013.

Next came a succession of increasingly controversial red carpet outfits that suggested Cyrus was pushing the limits of public nudity.

A nude photo shoot with Paper Magazine quickly followed (warning: NSFW), as did nude images with infamous Hollywood photographer Terry Richardson.

Cyrus has called the nudity “liberating” and “a form of expression”.

Perhaps now it will be an expression on her own terms – not the media’s.

Cyrus and fellow avant garde dresser Jared Leto. Photo: Getty