Hilary Duff opens up about finding confidence and self love in new show

Hilary Duff is set to star in a new spin off of How I Met Your Mother, titled How I Met Your Father, which will hit Disney+ this month.

The 34-year-old actor believes the show, which depicts the dating adventures of her character Sophie and her friends, will encourage viewers to find confidence in themselves and focus on self love.

Speaking ET Canada about the themes in the series that resonate with her and viewers, she said: "I think with with our show, what I really love is that we have these characters who are so desperate to find the love in their life, their forever, person.

“I think a big message we’re trying to communicate with this show is before you can love someone else, you really need to learn how to love yourself."

Sharing her tips for feeling empowered and being able to love yourself, the former Lizzie Maguire star said: "A big a way of finding that kind of confidence and love for oneself is through the friendships and the relationships around you that foster the things that make you you."

Hilary - who has nine-year-old son Luca with ex Mike Comrie, daughter Banks, three, and 11-month-old Mae with husband Matthew Koma - has recognised the difficulty in dating in modern times, which she thinks is in part to social media.

But she believes close friends and relatives are the ones who ground people, not social media, or the likes from an Instagram post. Well said Hilary!

She continued: "I think that in this world of online dating and kind of half of our life being split between our analogue self and our digital self, it’s really important to remember that the people that keep us grounded, the people that remind us who we are are those friendships.

"And I think being able to see that play out to being able to see each of these characters explore what feels like a safe love versus an irrational love versus an impulsive love is is all balanced by the fact that they have each other to remind themselves of who they really are and what they really want, and it’s a safe place to take those risks."