Teenage pop star Miley Cyrus has released a homemade rap video explaining why she deleted her account from the popular social networking site Twitter last week.

The 16-year-old singer's departure from the site puzzled many of the 1.1 million Twitter followers she had accumulated.

"Yeah the rumours are true, I deleted my Twitter," she raps in the video, in front of several teenage girls dancing in unison. "Can you believe it?"

To a loud beat, she rhymes that it wasn't her friends who told her to delete her account.

"The reasons are simple," Cyrus continues in the video. "I want my private life private -- I'm done tryin' to please."

Her father, country music star Billy Ray Cyrus, has encouraged her to start using the website again.

On Thursday, he tweeted that Miley "can't leave everyone now."

"You are a light in a world of darkness," he wrote. "We r countin on u."

However, Miley Cyrus' Twitter account remains inactive.

"FYI Liam doesn't have a Twitter and he wants ME to delete mine with good reason," read one of her final tweets. She was likely referring to Liam Hemsworth, her co-star in the upcoming movie "The Last Song."

Miley Cyrus had been using Twitter frequently to post short messages on topics ranging from snapshots of her daily life to her favourite song lyrics.

Now the social networking site is flush with comments from fans who say they miss the teen pop star.

"Twitter is not the same," wrote one fan.

"I miss her so much," wrote another.

Publicists for Cyrus and her father have so far declined requests to comment on the matter.

With files from The Associated Press