Miley Cyrus has not confirmed whether her relationship with her Last Song co-star Liam Hemsworth is strictly platonic or as red-hot as rumor has it – but the young star — who turns 17 on Monday — says whatever the nature of their friendship is will be staying “very DL.”

In an interview with Seventeen’s December/January issue, Miley says she’s matured in many ways in the last year – and she owns much of that to the Aussie.

“Liam has been a big part of that,” Miley gushed. “All you want is for one person to say, ‘You did a really good job today.’ Or ‘You look really beautiful,’ or ‘I was really moved by that.’ You just want one person to make you feel good about something you’re doing.”

Earlier this year, the teen starlet was accused by a former girlfriend of Liam’s of stealing the then-attached 19-year-old actor. Miley refused to respond to that allegation, instead saying that Liam understands her more than anyone she’s ever known:

“I’ve never gotten along with someone so well,” she explained. “I was a little anxious about making [‘The Last Song.’] I wanted everything to be perfect. To go on set and feel insecure was a totally new element for me. But he felt the same way. He admitted his insecurities, and it was really nice to have someone who understands me for once.”

She continued: “It sucks when your personal life becomes public. So I’m finding ways to make my personal and private life more of my life – which is one of the reasons why I deleted my Twitter. We’ve decided that any type of relationship that we have, we will always just keep it very DL. First and foremost, we are best friends, so that’s what I tell people all the time.”