When Miley Cyrus wanted to shift away from the tween roles that have defined her career, Tish Cyrus, her mother and co-manager, started at the top.

Rather than look for a pre-existing script, she contacted bestselling author Nicholas Sparks (“The Notebook”) and asked him to write something specifically for her daughter.

“Sparks is an amazing, faith-based writer and a Christian and he writes about relationships with a family and there is nothing about sex or things I felt were wrong for her,” she explains.

Cyrus, 16, met with the writer to flesh out her character; she disclosed elements from her own life — like her love for animals — that Sparks incorporated in his work, which started as a screenplay and only later became “The Last Song,” a best-selling novel. The movie version, with Cyrus, opens in April.

“This film is like taking that first baby step away from ‘Hannah Montana,’ ” Tish Cyrus notes. “It’s just a baby step, but she’s doing something different.”

Doing something different is one of many perfect moves the Cyrus team has made in building her career. Taken together, they’re a textbook case on how to develop a young performer.

While few young actors can hope to emulate Cyrus’ success, the 5,000 members of SAG who are younger than 18 will face many of the same decisions that affect whether they succeed or fail.

Speak to agents, managers, producers and studio executives and they will tell you several key elements go into crafting a young actor’s career: picking the right team; handling money astutely; maintaining an ongoing education trajectory; and diversifying away from roles that too narrowly define the performer.

The first step in building a career, of course, is finding the right management.

“It’s important to choose a representative who knows how to make career decisions slowly,” says Cyrus’ co-manager, Jason Morey.

“You have to have someone who has a plan,” adds Frederick Levy, the owner of a talent firm, Management 101, and the author of “Acting Young in Hollywood.”

Cyrus was lucky to have a father, singer-actor Billy Ray Cyrus, involved in show business and a mother immersed in her work. But parents can be a two-edged sword: If parents become what Levy calls “the momagers and popagers,” trouble looms.

“I like the parents most who look at acting as if they have a kid on a soccer team or baseball team,” says producer Matt Dearborn, who has had shows on Nickelodeon and Disney Channel, including the new “Zeke and Luther” on Disney XD. “It gets problematic when they start reading scripts or complain about parking spaces.”

Others with prominent stage parents — like Katherine Heigl, who started out as a child performer and whose mother has continued to work closely with her — have proved mixed blessings. Indeed, sources say that in Heigl’s case, one management company told her to choose between the firm and her mother.

When Cyrus’ career began to blossom, her mother got the best advice she could on who should rep her daughter. Dolly Parton suggested Morey Management Group and its patriarch, Jim Morey; his son, Jason, began managing Cyrus’ career, along with her mother.

“Dolly said the Moreys are people you can trust around your daughter,” Tish Cyrus recalls, “and she said they have good morals, which is not always the case in this business.”

Choosing the right team isn’t as simple as it sounds: This year, Cyrus’ family made a controversial move when they took her away from her longtime agent, Mitchell Gossett, and went to CAA. Gossett had left his previous agency to join UTA in the hope of giving Cyrus the major-agency backing that would support a widening career; but that wasn’t enough to keep her with him. (Both sides declined to discuss the matter.)

Other actors have made mistakes, either sticking with the right reps too long or abandoning those who have nurtured them. Insiders cite the ongoing image problems of Britney Spears, whose transition to adulthood has been marked by a wholesale change of representation. (Curiously, under her father’s conservatorship, she has made something of a comeback.)

In Cyrus’ case, in addition to hiring the right reps, Tish Cyrus hired her husband’s business manager to handle her finances — another crucial element as a career expands.

“It’s kind of scary to think what can happen to a child’s money,” she notes. “Parents quit their jobs, and to support their family they have to use a child’s money to survive.”

At least 15% of any earnings by law must now be set aside in a blocked account that no one can touch until a young performer reaches the age of 18. But unscrupulous parents or managers can sometimes siphon that away and there have been famous instances of lawsuits wielding accusations on all sides — as with Macaulay Culkin, the “Home Alone” star who failed to build on that franchise’s momentum.

“So many kids have worked and, when they look back, there’s nothing left,” Tish Cyrus adds. “That’s why we hired someone we can trust.”

Having money somewhere safe is essential as kids grow older and want to diversify, the next important step in building a long-term career.

While Cyrus has done this notably by moving into movies and concert tours (following her former agent Gossett’s advice to “continue to grow”), few have created as many opportunities for themselves as Mario Lopez, best known for his hosting work on “Extra.”

About 25 years after he got a tiny role on a failing ABC sitcom, “A.K.A. Pablo,” Lopez is building on a resume that includes his work on NBC’s teen sitcom, “Saved by the Bell,” and his co-starring role in the syndicated Santa Monica beach cop drama “Pacific Blue,” which helped him transition into adulthood. The peripatetic performer is thinking about a political career.

Original Article Source: Hollywood reporter, By Frank Swertlow, Oct 26, 2009, 11:01 PM ET

Will’s Comments: I am about half way through reading the book version of “The Last Song.” I can’t wait to see the movie when it comes out next year.