Hilary Duff’s spinoff series, How I Met Your Father is doing well enough that it has been renewed for a second season. I barely watched the Mother version, but I thought what I did watch was funny. The Father show is not doing it for me. I’m bummed because I love Christopher Lowell and want him to be in something great. Kim Cattrall is wasted in it too. But the show is doing well enough that Hilary is doing the In Her Shoes podcast to promote it. They talked a lot about the non-starter Lizzie McGuire reboot which is still a source of grievance for everyone, apparently. Hilary also spoke about social media and growing up with today’s technological advances and exposure. I found her thoughts on this interesting because she has such a unique perspective having grown up as a child star. Hilary laments that kids today have too many distractions. She claims that her generation didn’t have those luxuries and learned to entertain themselves. As the generation before Hilary, I don’t know that I totally agree with her.
Would she be able to navigate social media as a kid: I ask myself that question often. If I would’ve felt it would’ve been easier to navigate if social media would have been a thing when I was 18 or 25 even? Well, I guess maybe Twitter and stuff were coming out when I was 25… I feel so old. Because then I would’ve had a platform to expose who I was at that time, instead of how a magazine wrote an article about me. And then the other side is, it’s so scary. And I’m so scared for my kids to get on social media that I’m like, maybe it was for the best. I don’t know the answer to that.
On kids attention spans today: I’ve always had a crazy good work ethic. I don’t know if that’s being trained by Disney Channel, but I don’t even think so. I remember when I was little I wanted to learn how to do a cartwheel, a perfect cartwheel. And my mom said for two weeks straight, every single night for three hours in our living room, I was just doing a cartwheel, trying to do a cartwheel, cartwheel, cartwheel. So focused. Kids don’t have that focus anymore.
When Luca wants to do something, he’s five minutes practicing and then he’ll be like, “Can I get on my iPad?” There are just so many distractions. I feel like it’s just different times. When we were growing up we didn’t have all those distractions, we had to entertain ourselves. And then that goes into the whole work ethic thing of I was coming off this big show, then I didn’t want to be Lizzie McGuire forever. So then I started working on music and I wasn’t a natural singer. I knew I could carry a tune and I knew I had something to say. And then it was like, okay, I have to work hard to get anybody to take me seriously in music now. And then after that, I’m like, I’m not getting the roles I want, I got to audition for them. But I don’t know, I just made it all happen. And I think a huge testament to that is having such a strong fan base, obviously, that was built with Lizzie McGuire. But I felt so many different ways about it. I had so much responsibility to be a role model. And that was a lot of weight, and it was perfectly fine for a little while until it wasn’t.
On the pressure of growing up in the spotlight: I remember I was maybe 18 or 19 on tour and this mother came up to me after a meet and greet and she was like, “Whatever you do, don’t change. Just stay the same.” It was so intense. And she was holding my arms and looking in my face, almost begging me. And I was nice to her face and then I remember going into my dressing room and being like, “Don’t change? Don’t ever change? I’m 18, I’m doing nothing but changing. I’m different.”
This crazy feeling of what if I never change, and everybody just wants me to be the same. It was wild. And it wasn’t shortly after that I decided to stop touring. I took a huge break. I learned how to live alone. And I think taking that break and fucking up, but trying to be private about my life, helped me so much. It helped me find my footing again when my whole life was scheduled for me, and I couldn’t go anywhere alone. And it was very isolating. And like I said, it was cool for a little while and then it was not.
I agree that social media is a heavy distraction for kids. I think I would’ve struggled with it. If there was some drama unfolding with my friends or something going on that I had been left out of, I would be glued to my phone. I just did not have the self-esteem for social media as a youth. But I’m not on the same page as Hilary with electronics as distractions. I didn’t have an iPad but I had a TV and that was a distraction. My parents set the same limitations for me as I gave my kids on their devices. I also think the kid determines what they get distracted by. Those who are visually motivated prefer games and interactive electronic things while tactile kids prefer things they can grab with their hands. Taking Hilary’s cartwheel example, I understand her point, but I’m sure she’s heard Luca elated to have passed a game level. That takes determination and concentration too. I’m not bagging on Hilary. I used to freak out about electronics, but I’ve seen my kids and their friends grow around them and as long as everything is monitored, it seems to work out.
I was disturbed by that story Hilary told about the mother grabbing her wrists on tour. My gawd, can you imagine? She was only a teenager and already had studios, agents, and managers telling her to what to do. The press was criticizing her every move and on top of all that, her fans demanded she never put a foot out of place? It’s amazing any of these kid stars get out alive. And that they are willing to continue to share their lives with us. Hilary gets a lot of guff on social media for just about everything she does. She’s not perfect, I know. Her response to the whole car seat incident with Banks was so bad, she should have just kept her mouth shut. But I’m starting to realize that Hilary must have thick skin to have survived in the business as long as she has.
Photo credit: Instagram
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