Hannah Montana may be the most potent phenomenon in Hollywood right now -- bigger than Batman, bigger than Brangelina. Yet these days, the girl who truly fascinates is not Hannah, but Miley Cyrus.

The 15-year-old face of the billion-dollar Disney franchise is no longer a star for just the tween set: She's intriguing people who turn the pages of Seventeen magazine, as well as Us Weekly and Vanity Fair.

While Hannah is still very much a part of Miley, she does not solely define the singer/actress.

Nowhere is that clearer than with the release of Miley's latest album, Breakout.

While Miley has already sold millions of albums, it has always been with the Hannah Montana moniker attached.

But there's no blond wig to be found on the cover of this CD. Instead, there's a more mature sound that's already finding an older audience. The CD's first single, the rocker 7 Things, is now No. 9 on Billboard's Hot 100 chart and marks her biggest success in translating her music beyond the Radio Disney audience.

"To be played on these radio stations is awesome, to be able to rock out to it in your car without planning it, without it being just a kids channel," said Miley.

"(I'm) making it a little more fun and edgy, and I think being able to step out of the Hannah Montana thing -- not in a way where I'm forgetting her completely, but as my fans grow up, me growing up too and kind of having my own person."

The "Hannah Montana thing" is familiar to millions of kids and adults alike.

A movie is due out next year, the third season of the TV show starts filming in weeks, and the DVD of the blockbuster Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus: Best Of Both Worlds tour, which wrapped up earlier this year, is a lock to top the charts when it debuts later this summer.

But navigating her own celebrity path outside the confines of a famous character has proven to be difficult. With former teen phenoms like Lindsay Lohan and Britney Spears providing epic examples of bad behaviour, and the nude photo scandal involving Disney High School Musical star Vanessa Hudgens, tabloids have been eager to document a Miley implosion.

The first signs of potential concern came in the form of personal pictures that made their way onto the Internet, showing Miley dressed provocatively (though not obscenely) and setting the blogosphere abuzz.

A more serious firestorm erupted in April when Vanity Fair published a photo of Miley wrapped in a sheet, showing her bare back and shoulders.

The photo caused such outrage that even the New York Times chronicled the controversy, and Miley and her father, country singer Billy Ray Cyrus, said they regretted the result of the photo shoot.

But Miley has learned she doesn't even have to bare a shoulder to cause a fuss -- as when she revealed in an interview earlier this month that Sex And The City was one of her favourite shows.

"It just scared people because there was the word sex in the title, you know what I mean?" said Miley, brushing off her critics.

"Just because that's what the show is about that doesn't mean I'm doing that ... you don't all of a sudden become the character that you watch."

While allowing that she has made "mistakes," she also feels the media have been unforgiving in their scrutiny at times.

"It's kind of hard to let someone who was so young when they started kind of grow up," reasoned Miley, who was 13 when she debuted in the role.

"You just have to realize that people make mistakes and that makes you almost a little more relatable."

Much of that growth is reflected on her new CD. Although she co-wrote a majority of the songs on the Meet Miley Cyrus half of the last record, on Breakout her songs have a weightier tone.

"She always reached the adult audience, because she always reached moms. It's just in a way that radio finally started to acknowledge," said Sean Ross of Edison Media Research, which tracks the radio industry.

Said Miley: "I hope I get respected a little bit more as a writer.

"I want them to respect me and know that I have a lot to say, I have a lot for the world to know and take away from what my life experiences have been."