Hilary Duff needed a decade "to make peace with" Lizzie McGuire.

The 38-year-old actress rose to fame on the hit Disney Channel sitcom, and she has admitted she struggled to reconcile the character with the woman she was "growing up" to be.

Appearing on The Drew Barrymore Show, she said: "I think it took me like a good 10 years to make peace with like Lizzie McGuire.

"You know it's weird to play a character that people fall so in love with that doesn't grow up.

"She stays that age and then I grew up. You know what I mean?

"And so now I'm obsessed with her and get to join the fandom and be excited like everybody else, even though I was her, but for a while it was a hard thing to be like changing and evolving — but everywhere I went, I was this to people."

Drew asked Hilary if she made a conscious decision to separate herself from her breakout role, and she revealed that was the inspiration behind her music career.

She added: "I think that was why I became — I wanted to be a pop star.

"You know, the second I finished filming Lizzie, I was like, 'Cool, I don't wanna be called that anymore, and I'm gonna make music, get a record deal and be a pop star. [And] I did."

Hilary previously admitted she was "sad" that Disney's planned Lizzie McGuire revival got scrapped, because she wants to explore a more "grown up" version of the titular character.

She told i-D magazine: "I'm sad [those ideas] are going to waste, but maybe I feel slightly happy because I don't know if I would have made music a priority. But I'm sad that we didn't get to explore what her life would be like now. I have a great relationship with Disney, so no disrespect, but I feel like they should have listened to me.

"I'm the age of the people that would watch this, and I know what they would want.

"It wasn't like I wanted something crazy, but I wanted her to be grown up.

"I think they were a little scared."

However, Hilary hasn't completely ruled out a reboot of the show — which also featured Adam Lamberg, Jake Thomas, and Hallie Todd — in the future.

But, now, she would want to wait a couple of decades before stepping into the character's shoes again.

She said: "I feel like I wouldn't do it at 40, but I might do it at 60."