Everyone is talking about Miley Cyrus. For a very different reason this time.

By MELISSA WELLHAM

Last night everyone was talking about Miley Cyrus at the VMAs – which might feel a little bit like déjà vu, because that’s exactly what happened last year.

Except last year, everyone was talking about this moment:

And this year, they were talking about this moment:

After winning the award for Video of the Year for “Wrecking Ball,” 21-year-old Miley let someone else take to the stage in her place. An unrecognisable 22-year-old man, with floppy dirty-blond hair – who attended the awards ceremony with Miley – collected the award.

He announced that his name was Jesse, and then said that he was “accepting this award on behalf of the 1.6 million runaways and homeless youth in the United States who are starving and lost and scared for their lives.”

“I know, because I am one of those people,” he continued. “I have survived in shelters all over this city… The music industry will make over $7 billion this year, and outside these doors are 54,000 human beings who have no place to call home.”

Miley watched tearfully from the audience as Jesse spoke, wiping her eyes. Jesse then told those who wanted to help to visit Miley’s Facebook page – where the pop star has started a campaign to help LA’s homeless youth.

It appears that after the VMAs last year, the proactive pop star probably realised the potential of that platform (given that her twerking antics were trending for approximately forever). And this year, she decided to use the biggest promotional tool at her disposal – the same awards show – to shed light on an incredibly worthwhile cause.

Of course, many from the Twitter-verse have called the event a ‘stunt’ – but whether or not it was a stunt to raise funds for homelessness, or a stunt to improve Cyrus’ profile, it doesn’t really matter. It still directed the world’s attention to youth homelessness.

After the awards ceremony, Miley and Jesse visited an In-N-Out burger joint for dinner to celebrate. Miley shared the picture with: “Me and my hero at in n out celebratin”.

Jesse is our hero from the VMAs, too.

Well done, Miley.

Click here to see Miley Cyrus’s campaign for My Friend’s Place. 

If you would like to support homeless youth in Australia, you can visit Mission Australia here.