Hilary Duff is opening up about the “scars from the past” she had to confront as a former child star.
In a recent interview with Billboard, the 39-year-old actress and singer, who rose to fame at 14 when she starred in the hit Disney Channel series “Lizzie McGuire,” reflected on the lasting effects of childhood stardom as she discussed her return to music after more than a decade.
In February, Duff released “Luck … Or Something,” her first studio album since 2015’s “Breathe In. Breathe Out.” The album debuted at No. 3 on the Billboard 200 chart. In June, Duff launched the “Lucky Me Tour,” her first major tour in nearly two decades.
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Before launching her tour, Duff gave an intimate performance for friends and family in Los Angeles in January. She told Billboard that she was so nervous during the show that her hand shook as she held the microphone.
The “Younger” star recalled that after the performance, her son, Luca, told her he was proud of her for returning to the stage despite her fears.
“That stuck with me, because it is scary, and I’m used to being so tough and strong,” she said. “This industry really makes you very rough around the edges, where you’re like, ‘I’ve got to handle this, so I just will.'”
“But it was scary to step onstage after 20 years and figure out my identity, and how I move my body and what I’m taking from my old persona and adding to who I am now,” Duff continued. “It was a complicated thing to do, and I had to get over quite a few scars from the past.”
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Although she stepped away from music for more than a decade, Duff said some of the habits she developed during her years as a child star have been difficult to shake.
According to Billboard, Duff repeatedly referred to herself as a “Disney dog” during the interview, describing an ingrained impulse to “say yes and to go, go, go.”
Duff also said returning to music as an adult has allowed her to take greater control of her career than she had as a child star.
“It was wonderful building this on my terms,” she said. “I don’t mean that negatively in regard to how anything was handled in the past, because I was a child in the past. I wasn’t muted, and I got to make decisions, but people made a lot of decisions for me because I didn’t care or know enough to be like, ‘Here’s how I want this.'”
Duff also acknowledged that she continues to grapple with the experience of becoming famous at a young age.
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“I’ve had a great career and I feel really lucky,” she said. “I also am a child star, and that’s a really hard thing to wrestle with as an adult. People don’t survive that.”
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“The fact that I’ve been able to survive and that I get to have this moment … I get to send love to grown-up Hilary and be like, ‘You did it!’ and also send love to little Hilary and be like, ‘Hey, we’re still here. Look at what we did.'”
The “Lucky Me Tour” kicked off on June 21 in West Palm Beach, Florida, and included stops at Madison Square Garden in New York City and the Kia Forum in Inglewood, California, before heading to Europe, Australia and New Zealand. Due to strong demand, Duff extended the tour through 2027 with 32 additional dates across Europe, Latin America and the U.S.
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Duff told Billboard that reconnecting with longtime fans has helped her heal some of the wounds left by childhood fame. She said she now makes a point of thanking fans during her concerts for “letting me grow up.”
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“I understand fans hold me in this sweet capsule in their heart that holds a time in their life that was tender and uncomplicated,” Duff said.
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“But putting out a very honest and exposed record and them digesting and accepting it and being like, ‘Me Too’ — that was very healing for me,” she continued. “It showed me that they don’t just care about me as the person they hold in that capsule, they care about me now as well.”