Former Disney Channel star Hilary Duff opened up about her own experiences as a youth in the spotlight when asked Wednesday about documentaries such as “Framing Britney Spears” or “Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV,” which detailed sexual abuse claims from former Nickelodeon child stars who appeared in popular shows in the 1990s and 2000s.

Duff, now 38, said she felt “really quite sad” when watching the documentaries for “obvious reasons.”

“I feel very grateful that I wasn’t put in too many positions that left battle wounds on me,” she said, according to Variety. “But I have held a job as an adult since I was nine years old. I have a very different upbringing. I have a lot of missed experiences, but also a lot of amazing [ones].”

Duff, best known for starring as Lizzie McGuire in the eponymous show that aired from 2001 to 2004, shared that she faced pressure to perform as an adult while still a teenager.

“I’m a scrubby kid from Texas,” she said. “Sometimes I’m like, ‘How did I end up here?’ I think it goes to the luck of something, but it doesn’t take away the fact that I’ve worked as an adult since such a young age — and had to be able to hold my own in a room full of adults constantly. I was expected to show up and be professional through exhaustion or sickness or whatever.”

On the flip side, the experience “taught me a lot,” Duff said, “and it’s completely formed who I am. And I’m proud of that person.”

Duff then explained how “it’s hard to get out of” the experience of growing up as a child actor.

”I’m at 38, and I feel like now I’m finally able to take agency in my life and make decisions that I’m really confident in,” she added. “Although I did before, but there’s just a level now where I’m like, ‘I’m the adult in the room. Finally!’”

Former HuffPost journalist Ahmed Shihab-Eldin has been detained for

days in Kuwait. He must be freed immediately.

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Credit: Grace Rivera

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