希拉里·达夫：发现自己

退出流行歌坛与娱乐圈8年之后，希拉里·达夫在2015年携新专辑回归。不同的是，这一次她不再是当年聚光灯下的小童星，而是身为人母、自信前行的职业女性！

It doesnt take a genius to understand how fickle the pop music industry can be， which certainly makes it a bad idea to take a lengthy break from the business， say， for 8 years.

This is why it seems more than “so yesterday” that actress and singer Hilary Duff released her last album Dignity. But shes back in the game now with her 5th studio album， which came out in early June， 2015—Breathe In. Breathe Out.

The 28-year-old is no stranger to people of her age. She started as a child star and shot to fame as the leading character in Disney Channels Lizzie McGuire in 1999. She basically grew up in the spotlight.

But the experience was not exactly as enviable as everyone thought it would be. “It is isolating and it was lonely，” she told Popjustice， a music website. And after years of hard work she was “burnt out on everything”.

Moreover， it was difficult for people to see Duff as anything but a teen star， something many who get famous while young struggle with.

That was when Duff decided to take a bold step. “I was ready to live my life and not be blasted on the cover of Star magazine，” she said. “I needed to learn what I liked and who I was and make normal peoples decisions.”

流行乐坛的飞速变化尽人皆知，长期隐退从来都不是上选，尤其是一别8年之久。

这也许就是为什么演员兼歌手希拉里·达夫“隐退”前发行的最后一张专辑Dignity已如明日黄花。不过，2015年6月初，她已携第5张录音室专辑Breathe In. Breathe Out回归流行乐坛。

与28岁的希拉里·达夫同龄的人对她并不感到陌生。早在1999年她因出演迪士尼频道电视剧《新成长的烦恼》主角而名声大噪，成为一名小童星。她几乎是在聚光灯下长大的。

但这些经历并不像人人所想的那般令人羡慕。在接受音乐网站Popjustice采访时，达夫表示：“（聚光灯下的生活）仿佛与世隔绝，令人倍感孤单。”加之经过数年的高强度工作，她表示自己已经“对一切燃尽了热情”。

此外，人们都只是把她当作一个童星，仅此而已，许多小时候成名的人都想尽力摆脱这种童星印象。

这也促使达夫做出了一个勇敢的决定。她说：“我已经准备好过自己的生活，不再去《明星》杂志的封面上刷存在感了。我需要找到自己所爱、认识自己，像普通人一样做决定。”

And she did. During the past 8 years she got to remodel a house， get married， have a baby boy， Luca， and travel the world. She got divorced in early 2014.

“I feel like it was a big growing process，” she said. “Im an adult now and I was a kid before... I feel so much more confident as a person.”

The album has been received positively. US entertainment site The Verge commented that it was “smartly structured and ruthlessly catchy” and “imbued with real personality”， and Times review says that the tunes are “binge-able” and are “going to get anybody hyperventilating”.

“I know the pressures of what society thinks is a good choice to make， or what your family thinks are choices that you should make，” she told Buzzfeed， a website， when asked about advice she would give to young women. “As long as youre aware of what makes you happy and what youre good at... and making sure youre working hard and you know your path.”

她确实做到了。在过去的8年间，她改造房屋、嫁为人妻、有了孩子——男孩卢卡，还去世界各地旅行。2014年初，她又恢复了单身。

她说：“我觉得这是一段收获颇丰的成长历程。以前我是一个孩子，但我现在已成人……我觉得自己变得自信多了。”

她的这张专辑反响很不错。美国娱乐网站The Verge评论它“结构巧妙、歌词旋律朗朗上口，其中还深藏个人的真情实感。”《时代周刊》的乐评则是：曲调能令人“沉溺其中”，甚至令所有人呼吸急促。

当网站Buzzfeed问达夫有什么建议给年轻女性时，她说：“我知道整个社会、整个家庭对我们选择的压力。只要你知道什么能带给你真正的快乐以及什么是你所擅长的……确保你正在很努力地工作，也深知你正在前行的道路，就够了。”