Hilary Duff always knew that she would make music again—even when her fanbase had started to lose faith.
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In their defense, it has been over a decade since Duff released a studio album: 2015’s criminally underrated Breathe In. Breathe Out. But even as her focus shifted to acting and raising four children with her music producer husband, Matthew Koma, Duff would occasionally throw her fans a bone—like when she recorded a dubstep cover of Fleetwood Mac’s “Little Lies” to promote the second season of her hit sitcom Younger.
“Making music was a huge risk that I took at such a young age, and it was a huge part of my makeup for the longest time,” Duff tells Vogue. “It was hard to step away from it, but I always knew I would come back whenever the timing felt right.”
That time, it seems, is now: the 38-year-old performer’s new single, “Mature,” marks her first release under a recent deal with Atlantic Records. Duff describes the shimmering pop-rock track—a collaboration between Duff, Koma, and Madison Love, who’s written hits for everyone from Lady Gaga to Addison Rae—as “a little conversation that my present self is having with my younger self.”
The lyrics see Duff reflecting on a past fling with an older lover: “She looks like she could be your daughter, like me before I got smarter,” she sings on the chorus, “when I was flattered to hear you say: You’re so mature for your age, babe.”
“It’s definitely about a brief experience that I had a long, long time ago,” Duff says, choosing her words carefully. “It was extremely therapeutic to write about things that a normal conversation doesn’t really give you the opportunity to.”
The music video for “Mature” sees Duff seated in an otherwise empty theater, watching a version of herself perform onstage. She describes it as a “slightly meta” interpretation of the song’s lyrics, which question if she was being her authentic self in past relationships, or just performing a version of what men expected her to be.
Duff relished the opportunity to slip into “pop star mode” again for the visual. “There was some muscle memory there,” she says. “There’s part of me that stepped up, grabbed the microphone, and was like, Okay, I know what I’m doing here.”
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After years of seeing fans beg for music in her Instagram comments, Duff certainly felt the weight of their expectations. Also top of mind was the matter of navigating a pop ecosystem that looks very different from the one she came of age in.
“Mature” proved a perfect point of re-entry, pushing Duff’s sound in new directions while still feeling quintessentially Hilary. The guitar-forward production could just as easily live on an Olivia Rodrigo album as on Metamorphosis, Duff’s early-aughts magnum opus that spawned hits like “So Yesterday” and “Come Clean.” But Duff is no longer that 16-year old girl running to the recording studio during breaks from Lizzie McGuire—and she wants her new music to reflect that.
“I have the honor and joy of meaning so much to so many people during a very specific time in their lives,” she says. “But I’m ready to meet them again as the woman I am now.”
Fans have plenty to look forward to: Duff also recently announced that she’s been filming a docu-series, which will chronicle her return to music as she balances family life and prepares for her first live performances in over a decade. Here, she chats with Vogue about what’s to come.
Vogue: After years of fans begging for new music, why did now feel like the right time to come back?
Hilary Duff: I always knew I would be back at some point, but I didn’t have a running note on my phone until I started seriously talking with Matt [Duff’s husband] about what new music might sound like. Now that I have 10 more years of life experience under my belt, I really feel like I have something to say and that I have a safe space to do it. To be 38 and have built a family that looks the way I always dreamed it would, I feel like I can step away and take some time to do this for myself. I’ve had a forward-facing life for such a long time, but I’m ready to connect with people again on a level that feels authentic to who I am now. It feels like a victory lap.
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How does your mindset and approach to pop stardom feel different this time around, compared to the last time you released music, in 2015?
For the first time in a while, I feel like I really care. But I also don’t really care, if that makes sense? I know I’ve made something that feels 100% authentic to me with “Mature.” I’m talking about what I’m feeling and experiencing, and I think that’s all I can do after 10 years. I basically started making music as a child and I had lots of people protecting me during that time, so my first try as an adult with [Breathe In. Breathe Out.] was a little clunky.
Did you feel that way at the time?
It was a case of the label being like, “Go to Sweden and write with this person, everything’s coming out of Sweden right now.” I’m not trying to blame anybody—I was willing to give everything a try at that point. But the record sorta felt that way. I didn’t know how to take ownership of my process yet. And there are parts of that record I’m really proud of, but I needed to go through that experience to get to a point now where I really know what I want.
Talk me through how “Mature” came to be.
“Mature” is a conversation with my younger self about being happy with where I landed. Part of it was an idea that Matt originated, and part of it came from thinking about that idea of not recognizing younger versions of yourself when you’re now deep into your 30s. Matt obviously knows all the stories from my past, and he’s so great at coming up with a concept where I get to go in and interior design the whole thing. The song is about reflecting on your past and coming to terms with the choices you’ve made, but without being too hard on yourself. It’s a fun record, but it’s secretly kinda heavy too.
I saw it referred to in the press release as a piece of “auto-fiction.” Can you elaborate on what experiences you drew from when crafting the song?
It is definitely about a brief experience that I had in my—a long, long time ago [laughs]. But it is not totally autobiographical. I took a few artistic liberties just to make the song work structurally, but the gist is the gist. I was looking back on this relationship and thinking about whether this guy had a habit of dating younger women or whether I was “special.” The whole experience was super therapeutic to write about, but being so vulnerable through your music can be really scary.
Are you someone who prefers a more diaristic approach to songwriting?
I would say so. I’m not just writing songs all day every day, so it always has to come from somewhere within me. That’s why connecting with people through music always feels like so much more of a raw nerve. My husband is someone who can write a song about anything. We watched Fleischman Is in Trouble together, and one day Matt played me a song he’d been working on. Halfway through I was like, “Wait, is this about Jesse Eisenberg’s character in Fleischman?”
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I know you and Matthew technically first collaborated on a cover of Third Eye Blind’s “Never Let You Go” in 2020…
That happened because Third Eye Blind is one of our bands that we are obsessed with as a couple. One of the things we bonded over on our first date was music. I said I’m forever listening to Third Eye Blind and he was like, “We are so going to get married one day.” When Matt told me he was doing a cover of “Never Let You Go” with RAC I was like, “How dare you not ask me to sing on it?” So I just sorta hopped on.
How was the experience of collaborating on your first original song together?
He’s just the best fucking human and my number-one cheerleader. He believes in me beyond any vision I have for myself. I couldn’t imagine making new music with anyone else. I never thought I wanted to get married again until I met him. We had Banks before we got married, and while I was pregnant I kinda hated his guts. I couldn’t stand the way he walked and chewed because all of this stuff was just so terrifying. Every day I looked in the mirror like, Oh my God, what am I doing? Then we had the baby and I saw what a great dad he is. I was like, Wait, I’m actually obsessed with you!
How did you land on the concept for the “Mature” video?
It was important to me that the video felt like a performance instead of just laying out the story of the lyrics. I wanted it to feel slightly meta, where it shows this girl in the audience watching herself sorta “perform” back to her. I wanted to get across that idea of looking at some of the more performative elements of your prior self: was it ever authentic, or were you always putting on a show for someone?
Talk me through some of the video’s fashions—I loved that gold Jenny Packham you wear during the stage scenes. It feels very Bob Mackie-era Cher.
My stylist Caroline [DeJean] crushed it. That dress sorta felt like something a glamorous Hollywood performer would wear. And I loved the leather jacket with the little bra-and-skirt combo. It was a very collaborative effort because I wanted to incorporate fashion that felt glitzy but still modern.
Did you slip right back into pop-star mode, or was there a learning curve?
There was some muscle memory there! There’s part of me that stepped up, grabbed the microphone, and was like, Okay, I know what I’m doing here. Something that didn’t happen back in the day is all the content you have to make now. You really don’t get breaks anymore because there’s always some TikTok to film, which was never a part of my experience in the music industry. I’m not living under a rock so I’m not totally oblivious, but I am a millennial so I live on Instagram, not TikTok. I’ll send my husband a post like, “Did you hear about this French jewel heist?” and he’ll be like, “That happened three days ago.” I’m listening to any advice I can get right now.
I loved the butterfly at the end of the video—I’m assuming that was a nod to Metamorphosis?
Absolutely. Butterflies hold a lot of strings to my past, and I wanted a nod to that first record being part of my “metamorphosis” to this stage of my career. They feel very similar in ways, because they both represented new beginnings for me. I wanted to include that butterfly just as a little nugget because of the significance they’ve always held for me. Before my grandmother passed away, she told me that any time I see a butterfly, that would be her saying hello. My backyard is filled with butterflies all the time, so it feels like she’s always saying hi! They’re an important little charm in my life.
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What have you been listening to lately?
I have kids so I listen to a lot of what they want, but I love pop. I’m obsessed with Sombr and I was so excited to see him at Vogue World. I love a pop boy, and he’s so giant and cute.
I’ve seen you in the Instagram comments of Audrey Hobert, who I’m kinda obsessed with at the moment.
I cannot stop listening to her. I scream-sing every song in my car.
What’s your favorite?
That’s tough, but I love “Thirst Trap.” “Bowling Alley” is my husband’s favorite, which I also love. But I’m also obsessed with “Shooting Star.”
Don’t forget “Sex and the City.”
Of course, and “Chateau” is also so good. She made a perfect pop record, in my opinion. I also listen to a lot of older stuff from the ’60s and ’70s. I feel like I was meant to be an old woman on a yacht with a glass of Sauvignon blanc because I love yacht rock so much.
Have you heard the new Lily Allen record?
I have listened to most of it, and it’s so refreshing to hear someone just sing about what they feel and not censor themself to please anyone. I’ve also been listening to a lot of Olivia Dean and The Japanese House lately.
Alongside “Mature,” you also announced that you’ve been filming a docu-series chronicling your return to music. Having avoided any sort of reality or docu-series up until now, why did this feel like the right time?
There’s a lot of reasons, but one that comes to mind is how different everything feels now compared to when I first started in the industry. Not to make our conversation about this, but I came of age in the golden era of paparazzi and Perez Hilton and people openly gossipping about you. Now you can perfectly curate your life and only show people what you want them to see, which is mostly what we get fed. But there are still people on TikTok who stir up gossip by making videos and saying whatever they want. In some ways it feels kinda similar to that early-’00s tabloid era, but in a “new age” way. But my entire process looks totally different now. I’ve been a parent now for almost 14 years, and I think it’ll be interesting to watch a mother go back to work.
How has motherhood changed your perspective on your music career?
Obviously I’m gonna always put my kids first. But over the years, it’s easy for your personal interests to slip lower and lower on a list of priorities until you end up putting yourself last. I’m ready to not do that and just go balls-to-the-wall again. I wanted to document what it looks like to try and do this all again with my family. When I look at all the big pop stars, not too many of them are also mothers. I chose a different path, so achieving my dreams is going to look a whole lot different now that I have four kids at home. There’s an honesty and an “I don’t give a fuck” mentality that comes with it. I think the docu-series will be fun to watch because the stakes feel higher. You don’t know how this ends for me, but hopefully it ends the way I want it to.
How do you want it to end?
I want it to end very loudly, with lots of screaming people.
The press release for “Mature” does mention that the docu-series will include “live show rehearsals.” Does that mean we’re getting a Hilary Duff tour in 2026?
All I can say is that I am very excited to see people’s faces again very soon. I’ve missed them and I’ve missed performing. It’s been really fun to rediscover this part of myself again, layered within the person I’ve become. I’m so excited to share this song with everyone, and there’s a lot to come. I’ve been working really hard, and I think 2026 is gonna be a fun victory lap.
How has it felt to see fan reactions to the news about your return to music?
It’s been a really emotional past few weeks. I operate from a place of, “Does anybody still care about me? Does anybody even remember that I used to make music?” That’s the barefoot Texas girl in me that still feels like I have to fake it till I make it. We’re coming up on the 25th anniversary of Lizzie McGuire, and I have the honor and joy of meaning so much to so many people in a very specific time in their life. And that’s always really kind to hear people say, but sometimes it strikes a little bit of a nerve because I have so much more to say.
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