How Hannah Montana became an unexpected icon for marginalized kids

New York — On a cool, wintry afternoon in early March, a crowd of people streamed towards New York’s Washington Square Park for a Miley Cyrus lookalike contest. Many in the audience were die-hard Hannah Montana fans, including Iranian-American cousins, Sophia, 23, and Ariana Parizadeh, 22. Growing up the children of immigrants in strict households, they remembered childhoods spent secretly watching Hannah Montana’s double-life unfold, her days split between being a regular girl and a pop star, and how it reminded them of their own lives as they navigated home life and school. “Going between home and school, I felt...