Bless Your Heart of the Week: Hilary Duff

This week, after a 6 year absence from the music industry, the girl who singlehandedly inspired the fashion and hair choices of almost every pre-teen in the early 2000s (except me of course… my mother was never a huge fan of the belly top or the mini-bun/butterfly clip combo), has returned to us. That’s right friends. Hilary Duff is back… and bless her heart.

I have to be honest… I have never had more respect for a former "Disney Kid" than I did for Hilary Duff when she left the music industry. It marked her transition into adulthood. She did an arc on Gossip Girl, and was actually great in it. She wrote 3 novels, one of which was a New York Times Bestseller. She got married and had a beautiful baby boy. And then even after her recent split from her husband of 4 years, she maintains a healthy familial relationship with her ex for the sake of their child. All before 30. As far as I’m concerned Ms. Duff has been getting an A+ in adulthood… something we can only hope to achieve ourselves.

I loved that she didn’t seem to need “it” anymore.

All that said, you can imagine how disappointed I was to hear that she was planning a comeback as a pop-singer. Now I’m the first to admit that I belted out “Hey now hey now this is what dreams are made of…” with every other girl in my 8th grade class, but that was because she was one of us, we could live our dreams through her. She was Lizzie McGuire, the girl we all wanted to be. As a 27-year-old stand-alone artist singing about “Chasing the Sun” (the name of her new single) it just doesn’t quite have the same effect as her early music did. She looks adorable in the video, but it just feels like she’s reaching for her teen idol glory of yore.

We've all grown up, but she shows no maturity in her music. I can’t help but compare the song to Sheryl Crow’s summer anthem “Soak Up the Sun”, and it just doesn’t compete. The single has received a critical response, which doesn’t bode well for the rest of the album.

Bless her heart.

Here is the official video for the new single. Check it out. In the meantime I’m going to try and find the blouse she is wearing in the office scenes… it’s so cute.

With Grace and Good Humor,