Miley Cyrus has revealed that she identifies as pansexual, after years of not understanding her own sexuality.

The Bangerz singer, who is thought to be dating actor Liam Hemsworth, said her first relationship was with a female, but that she never liked the term “bisexual”.

She told America’s Variety magazine: “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 went on: “My eyes started opening in the fifth or sixth grade. My first relationship in my life was with a chick.”

Miley, 23, said she “never related to loving being a girl”, but that “being a boy didn’t sound fun to me”.

The former Hannah Montana star said she first identified as pansexual – meaning people who can be attracted to others regardless of their gender identity or biological sex – when she “figured out what it was”.

She said: “I went to the LGBTQ centre here in LA, and I started hearing these stories.

“I saw one human in particular who didn’t identify as male or female. Looking at them, they were both: beautiful and sexy and tough but vulnerable and feminine but masculine.

“And I related to that person more than I related to anyone in my life.”

The star said regardless of how people may see her, she feels “very neutral”.

“I think that was the first gender-neutral person I’d ever met,” she said.

“Once I understood my gender more, which was unassigned, then I understood my sexuality more.

“I was like, ‘Oh — that’s why I don’t feel straight and I don’t feel gay.’ It’s because I’m not.”