Miley Cyrus Opens Up About Identifying as Pansexual "My eyes started opening in the fifth or sixth grade," she said.

 -- Miley Cyrus may be currently involved with Liam Hemsworth, but she doesn't want to label herself.

In a new interview with Variety, the actress said that she feels "very neutral" about her gender and sexuality.

Explaining "I don't feel straight and I don't feel gay," Cyrus, who identifies as "pansexual," added that for a long time, she was confused about what that meant.

"My whole life, I didn’t understand my own gender and my own sexuality. I always hated the word 'bisexual,' because that’s even putting me in a box. I don’t ever think about someone being a boy or someone being a girl," she said. "My eyes started opening in the fifth or sixth grade. My first relationship in my life was with a chick."

"Once I understood my gender more, which was unassigned, then I understood my sexuality more," she added.

Cyrus, 23, first discussed being pansexual last year, and told Paper magazine that she doesn't identify as male or female. Her personal experiences, she added in the Variety interview, are part of why she's working so hard to help the LGBTQ community via her Happy Hippie Foundation.

"My empowerment comes from feeling like I have a purpose now," she said. "On my tombstone, I didn’t want the 'Wrecking Ball' lyrics. I wanted it to be something greater."