Top 5 Hilary Duff Hits

It's been two decades since Lizzie McGuire first premiered on Disney Channel. You read that right. Twenty years. Count 'em. Two-zero. (Sorry, but if I have to feel old, I'm bringing everyone down with me.)

The popular television series made then-thirteen-year-old Hilary Duff a household name and kickstarted her acting career. Like many Disney stars, Hilary went on to make music, blessing us with albums like Metamorphosis, Hilary Duff, and Most Wanted.

Trying to come up with a clever title for this story (I never did), I looked up the Lizzie McGuire theme song lyrics. Turns out they're pretty similar to one of my recent pieces, in which I confessed that my life has gone slightly completely off the rails and isn't as picture-perfect as one might imagine.

If you believe

We've got a picture-perfect plan

We've got you fooled

'cause we only do the best we can

And sometimes we make it

And sometimes we fake it

But we're gettin' one step closer each and everyday

We'll figure it out on the way

Pretty spot on, right? (If you'd read "Thanks, Lindsay," you'd know.)

As I was compiling a list of my favorite Hilary songs, they all seemed to coincide in some way with my decision to open up more and get real with my readers. Here's a breakdown of some of Hilary's best hits and their ongoing relevance to my life:

5. Fly

Fly

Open up the part of you that wants to hide away

You can shine

Forget about the reasons why you can't in life

And start to try

Cause it's your time

Time to fly

At the end of May, I resolved to spend one month giving article promotion my all. I hadn't really shared my stories anywhere outside of the Vocal Facebook groups before; I was passively waiting for readers to come to me, hoping that something would just magically happen.

On May 25th, I started my promotion campaign, and I watched my numbers skyrocket. And as I opened up about the messier parts of myself, I found more satisfaction in what I was creating. It was empowering.

Basically, I decided to try, and I started to fly.

(If you're here from a Hilary Duff Facebook group, thank you for participating in my article promotion experiment.)

4. Stranger

Are you scared to let 'em know it's you?

If they could only see you like I do

Then they would see a stranger too

Honestly, yes, I was a little scared to let you guys see the real me. Mostly because I still hope to have a professional career in the near future, and I'm out here talking about bleached assholes and tripping on hallucinogens. Google 'self-destruction', my picture should pop up.

The IMDb description of this music video is so dramatic, I have to include it.

Alienated, strangers in a torn relationship. In a haze of revenge fantasy, jilted newlywed Hilary sees herself as a harem belly-dancer winning back the affections of her philandering husband, but in the cold light of reality she can only pack her bags and leave.

Riveting.

3. So Yesterday

'Cause if it's over let it go and

Come tomorrow it will seem so yesterday, so yesterday

I'm just a bird that's already flown away

Laugh it off and let it go and

When you wake up it will seem so yesterday, so yesterday

Haven't you heard that I'm gonna be okay?

This one's pretty self-explanatory.

2. Come Clean

Let the rain fall down

And wake my dreams

Let it wash away

My sanity

'Cause I wanna feel the thunder

I wanna scream

Let the rain fall down

I'm coming clean

Remember Hit Clips? This was my very first disc. I vividly remember standing in front of the rows of options at Target as a kid, hopelessly trying to make up my mind about which ones I should get. I could only afford a couple, and this was the one song I had to have. Pretty sure I went with "So Yesterday" as my second choice.

Anyway, it felt good to come clean about my disaster of a life.

Honorable Mention: Dignity

Where's your, where's your, where's your dignity?

I think you lost it in the Hollywood hills

I think I've managed to maintain most of my dignity, but I am starting to question whether I really needed to fess up to the whole pooping in the shower thing.

Honorable Mention: With Love

I totally forgot that Kellan Lutz (Emmett from Twilight) was in this. Anyway, I'd like to dedicate this one to Lindsay Rae Brown.

*throws on awful wig and starts sexy dancing in an elevator*

Baby can you be tough

Say enough is enough

You can even be blunt

Just do it with love love love love

Tell me I'm wrong

That I'm comin' on way too strong

Don't think I'd be crushed

Just do it with love love love love

It's like I'm begging for a restraining order.

... and, of course,

1. What Dreams Are Made Of

Hey now, hey now

This is what dreams are made of

I've got somewhere I belong

I've got somebody to love

This is what dreams are made of

Could it be any other? Admit it,

Before Miley Stewart, Lizzie McGuire was our "normal girl/identical pop star just with different hair" icon, and her adventures in Italy were what my childhood dreams were made of. This scene was a cultural reset.

My recent milestones on Vocal have shown me that I do, in fact, have somewhere I belong, and the Vocal community has given me a great many people to love.

Me and Lindsay, in my dreams:

Hilary Duff taught me to raise my voice, to create my own Cinderella story, and to unapologetically be myself. She gave me some large family representation in Cheaper by the Dozen, and for a while there, she and Christy Carlson Romano even made me want to go to military school. (Shout-out to my mother for not going along with that ill-conceived plan.)

Hilary's music is the epitome of early 2000s nostalgia. As one of the few child stars to escape the Disney machine relatively unscathed, Hilary continues to be a role model and inspiration to her fans twenty years after her rise to fame. We may not have gotten a Lizzie McGuire reboot, but we'll always have these timeless tunes to make us feel Younger.

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Check out some of my other stories and Challenge entries here: