It’s not the most modest self-description, but one must remember that Miley Cyrus is only 15 years-old and a Hollywood celebrity. The singing star of “Hannah Montana” fame, has three words to describe herself “Coolest. Person. Ev-er!” she tells People magazine in a special Miley Cyrus issue set to hit newsstands on Friday, July 4. ”Really, I think I’m chill. I am very hyper but I’m very carefree.”

She also tells People her approach to life is to take things as they come. “Madonna always reinvents herself, and that’s what I want to do,” said Miley.   ”Whatever comes my way that sounds good, that’s what I want to do.   Whether it’s designing clothes or photography or whatever.”

The People interview follows a storm of controversy earlier this year after Vanity Fair magazine published photos of Cyrus, daughter of country singer Billy Ray Cyrus, that to some fans and parents seemed inappropriate for a 15 year-old girl. In one, she appeared to be topless and wrapped only in a blanket. She later apologized to fans and said she was “embarassed.”

She tells People that over the past year she’s learned a big lesson:  “I think knowing which people I can trust and being more aware of my surroundings.  I really had to work on that.  It’s like Dorothy — I’m not in Kansas anymore.  I’m not at home in Tennessee.”

And what does she have in common with the Hannah Montana character she portrays on the Disney Channel TV show? ”She’s changing up her style and that’s how I am too.  That’s how I think my real personality shines through,” Cyrus said. 

For the future, Miley is trademarking her name, People reported, and with sold out albums, a hit TV show and movie box office smash “Hannah Montana & Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert,” Miley could even build a showbusiness empire. “I like that word. Empire!” she told People. “There are a lot of options and a lot of it is because of who I am now. I just want to become something more than what I’m known as now.”