Tough love? One of Miley Cyrus' role models, Sinead O'Connor, has written an open letter to the 20-year-old singer filled with strongly-worded advice. The 46-year-old Irish singer felt compelled to speak out after Cyrus told Rolling Stone magazine that her "Nothing Compares 2 U" music video from the early '90s was the inspiration for Cyrus' "Wrecking Ball" video. (Both clips feature extreme closeups of the women — O'Connor bald, Cyrus with her pixie cut — crying and singing into the camera.) Though the letter is brutally honest, O'Connor explains she wrote it "in the spirit of motherliness and with love."
"I am happy to hear I am somewhat of a role model for you," O'Connor writes on her website, "and I hope that because of that you will pay close attention to what I am telling you."
"I am extremely concerned for you that those around you have led you to believe, or encouraged you in your own belief, that it is in any way 'cool' to be naked and licking sledgehammers in your videos," she says. "It is in fact the case that you will obscure your talent by allowing yourself to be pimped, whether it's the music business or yourself doing the pimping."
"Nothing but harm will come in the long run, from allowing yourself to be exploited," O'Connor, a mother of four kids, continues, "and it is absolutely NOT in ANY way an empowerment of yourself or any other young women, for you to send across the message that you are to be valued (even by you) more for your sexual appeal than your obvious talent."
O'Connor then really lays into the former Hannah Montana star, even suggesting that she could end up in rehab someday. "Yes, I'm suggesting you don't care for yourself. That has to change."
The "Emperor's New Clothes" singer does praise Cyrus for her talent, but says she needs to stop getting naked. "You are worth more than your body or your sexual appeal," she writes, adding, "You have enough talent that you don't need to let the music business make a prostitute of you."
"Whether we like it or not, us females in the industry are role models and as such we have to be extremely careful what messages we send to other women," O'Connor warns. "The message you keep sending is that it's somehow cool to be prostituted . . . it's so not cool Miley . . . it's dangerous."
Tell Us: What do you think of O'Connor's advice?
