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In a subculture where DUIs, up-skirt exhibitionism and revolving stints in rehab are the norm, Hilary Duff is a rebel. She may have shed her squeaky clean Disney alter ego, Lizzie McGuire, but Duff isn’t about to follow the cliché of child star gone Hollywood bad — though not for lack of opportunity or incentive.
She acknowledges that the past couple of years have been rough. Her weight has been intensely scrutinized by the tabloids (she credits Pilates for leaning out her former gymnast’s body), and she broke up with her boyfriend of two and a half years, rocker Joel Madden — no, Nicole Richie had nothing to do with it. But the worst was the painful dissolution of her parents’ marriage. “It definitely hardens you a bit,” she says, still visibly uncomfortable with the topic. “Most people go through that when they’re younger, so it was a shock. I was like, This can happen now? You just realize that your parents are human, like you.”
What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger—or at least provides great material to write with, which is what Duff did for her third studio album, Dignity. “This was the first time I sat down and wrote everything that I felt, when I felt it.” She was a green 15 the first time she penned a song and had never taken on a whole album. “It was a trust issue before. I was like, ‘This sucks. No one’s going to like this. No one’s going to relate to it.’ But this time around, I just went for it.” And the critics approve: “For the first time actually, I’ve gotten good reviews.” At press time, her song “With Love” has topped Billboard’s Hot Dance Club Play chart, and the album has hit the top five in the U.S. and Canada.
Read the full article in “FASHION” Magazine’s September issue, on newsstands August 20.
[Source & Photo Credit: HDuffWorld]
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