Since its debut in 2006, Disney's mega-hit show Hannah Montana has been a contender in the TV, music and movie industries, and its young star, 14-year-old Miley Cyrus, is being hyped as an Annette Funicello.

If you don't know the show, here's a primer. "Hannah Montana" is the stage name and secret identity of Miley Stewart, who is a normal girl by day, a pop singing sensation by night. Miley Stewart is played by Miley Cyrus (yep, daughter of Billy Ray). The episodes mix teenage life lesson with rock concert.

This month saw the release of Hannah Montana 2: Meet Miley Cyrus and the start of a Miley Cyrus singing career. The album features one disc with Cyrus performing as Miley playing Hannah's music from the show, and one disc with Cyrus singing as herself. This means she's introduced by her fictional self twice removed, which seems totally appropriate to the reality TV era. (It's like American Idol, if the network could pre-select the contestants it wants to package. But I repeat myself.)

Cyrus is actually racking up more sales than most Idol participants. Her second album topped the Billboard 200 for its release week, outselling Kelly Clarkson's My December.

Despite her fame and apparent talent, Miley seems normal in such a refreshingly sweet way that I hope daddy Cyrus is guarding against the typical child-star fate. Here Miley shows she knows how to play nice:

"These little kids come up and invite me to their birthday parties. I keep thinking, 'You know, I should go to some of them.'"

And here she is not being full of her famous self:

"It was weird the first time it happened. It was the day after the show came out and my best friend and I went to Universal and we heard these girls scream, 'Is it her?' We're looking around for Britney or Lindsay or someone famous and they're like, 'Are you Miley?' And I said, 'Miley? Yeah, why?' I thought I was in trouble."

Some publicity photos try to sex her up in that creepy child-star way, but most photos just show her giant, happy smile.

Child-stars and children of fame don't have the best track record for happy lives, and being both could be a double whammy. My hope: Miley grows up more daring than Annette in her one-piece suits, but avoids the tabloid home of so many of the 1990s Mickey Mouse Club alums.