Hilary Duff weighs in on body image struggles growing up in spotlight

Hilary Duff has recently weighed in on body image struggles while growing up in the limelight.

The Lizzie McGuire alum remembered being "scrutinised" as a public figure and then having all these pictures and memes of her at all ages across the internet.

"It’s funny, to an extent, remarked Hilary in an interview with Yahoo Life.

A Cinderella Story star continued, "And then there's some days where I'm like, ‘Wow, that was a really hard time in my life’."

"It almost hurts for me to look at that girl," confessed Hilary.

The actress stated, "The magazines were mean and the press was mean," revealing that the mean comments made about her body added to her misery as she developed an eating disorder at the age of 17.

In an earlier interview with Women’s Health, Hilary shared that she went to "great lengths to make sure she adhered to the beauty standard" which she considered to be "skinny".

However, now Agent Cody Banks actress focuses on staying healthy rather than following any particular body ideal.

"I don't know what's real anymore. Everything's so heavily edited and filtered," commented Hilary.

She told the outlet, "You just have to experiment and find out what works for you and what feels good ... Kind of be your own beauty icon."

Hilary believed that age has more to do with her "changing perspective".

"As I get older, I'm more happy with who I am and how I look."

Hilary explained, "I care about being healthy, I care about feeling good in my clothes, but I don't care about being tiny."

The actress also attributed this shift of thought to motherhood, adding, "It did change my mindset to understand my body was like meant to do this and it's changing. It just kind of forced me into a different zone."