Hilary Duff Says Being Fired at Age 11 Led to ‘Lizzie McGuire’ Role

As Hilary Duff is preparing to release Luck … or Something, her first album in more than a decade, she revealed her career might not have panned out the way it has if it weren’t for getting fired from a show when she was 11 years old. 

Discussing her return to music for Variety’s “Know Their Lyrics” video series, Duff said she had been cast in an unnamed TV show but was abruptly replaced with twins so the production could work longer hours without violating child labor laws. “I got fired,” Duff said [laughs]. “[I was] 11 years old, and I got fired from a job. It was absolutely devastating.”

Duff said she had decided to return to her home state of Texas to be a “normal kid” when “my manager called my mom and was like, Disney wants to see Hilary for this thing.” The “thing” in question was the hit television series Lizzie McGuire, which helped launch Duff’s acting career.

The former Disney child star’s forthcoming album Luck … or Something is set for release on Feb. 20, 2026 — it’s her first album since 2015’s Breathe In. Breathe Out. Duff said she always had plans to return to music after a hiatus to focus on acting, starring in Younger and How I Met Your Father, but “never wanted to jump the gun and do something that didn’t totally feel right.” 

Her first single from the album, “Mature,” was released earlier this month and is co-produced by her husband, Matthew Koma. Speaking to Variety, Duff confirmed the lead single is about a “very brief romance that I had with an older guy,” and the song is an inner conversation where Duff talks “to the past version of myself and looking back at that time with the maturity of a formed grown adult.”