Hilary Duff is looking directly at the emotional toll of growing up famous as she returns to music after more than a decade away. The actress and singer says child stardom left scars she still has to confront, even as she recognizes how fortunate her career has been, as reported by Fox News.

Duff, 39, rose to fame at 14 as the star of the Disney Channel series “Lizzie McGuire.” In a recent Billboard interview, she reflected on that early success and the lasting effects it carried into adulthood.

In February, Duff released “Luck … Or Something,” her first studio album since 2015’s “Breathe In. Breathe Out.” The new album debuted at No. 3 on the Billboard 200 chart.

Her return also took her back to the stage. In June, she launched the “Lucky Me Tour,” her first major tour in nearly two decades, but the road back began with an intimate January performance for friends and family in Los Angeles.

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Duff told Billboard she was so nervous during that performance that her hand shook as she held the microphone. Afterward, her son, Luca, told her he was proud that she had returned to the stage despite her fears.

“That stuck with me, because it is scary, and I'm used to being so tough and strong,” Duff 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.'”

The challenge involved more than simply performing again. Duff was also trying to determine how the artist she once was could fit alongside the adult she had become.

“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.”

Although Duff stepped away from music for more than a decade, she said habits formed during her child star years have been difficult to break. Billboard reported that she repeatedly described herself as a “Disney dog,” referring to an ingrained urge to “say yes and to go, go, go.”

Returning to music as an adult has given Duff greater control over her career than she experienced as a child. She emphasized that her comments were not intended as criticism of how her earlier career was managed.

“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 spoke bluntly about the difficulty of carrying child stardom into adult life. “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.”

Surviving those pressures has allowed Duff to view both her younger and adult selves with compassion. “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” began June 21 in West Palm Beach, Florida. It included performances at Madison Square Garden in New York City and the Kia Forum in Inglewood, California, before continuing to Europe, Australia and New Zealand.

Strong demand led Duff to extend the tour through 2027, adding 32 dates across Europe, Latin America and the U.S. Reconnecting with longtime fans has also helped her heal some of the wounds associated with childhood fame.

Duff said she now thanks concert audiences for “letting me grow up.” She understands that some fans associate her with a particularly tender and uncomplicated time in their own lives.

“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.

“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.”

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