Hilary Duff’s New Fitness Campaign Has a Deeper Meaning

In an era of skinnytok and ultra thin bodies, Hilary Duff is doing something different: She’s partnering with Ladder, a fitness company, and she’s speaking up about how she’s choosing “stronger, not smaller”.

This shouldn’t feel revolutionary but…it kind of does.

Again, we are in a moment of shrinking bodies. People are using GLP-1 drugs even if they don’t need them for medical reasons for the express purpose of shrinking their bodies. On social media, women often frame deprivation as discipline. And strength training, after a brief moment of popularity among young women, seems to have fallen out of favor again. Now, women are turning to things like walking and pilates out of fear of getting “bulky” or looking “masculine”. 

But Hilary Duff is here to say no. That’s not a thing — certainly not a thing to fear. “[I] grew up during that time where all of us were trying to, like, disappear and be waifs, and that’s not natural for my body and for most of our bodies, especially as we endure [hormonal changes, pregnancy and motherhood],” she said during an interview with TIME. 

“Stronger, not smaller” has become the takeaway message from the campaign, and Duff calls it an “impactful statement”. And you know what? It is.

Focusing on getting stronger affects not just how our bodies look , but also how they function and age. As a woman who grew up during a time when women were encouraged to never lift weights because it would make them look “bulky”, I loved that strength became a major focus of women’s fitness about a decade ago…yet now, the focus has gone back to being as tiny as possible. 

I’m not the only woman who finds Duff’s campaign incredibly important, especially right now. Across social media, I see posts from other millennial women gush about how beautiful this is. It finally feels like a step in the right direction to so many of us.