Hilary Duff, Josh Peck Discuss Difficulties And Differences In Finding Their True Self At Disney And Nickelodeon

Hilary Duff and Josh Peck are two people who lived similar lives. They both grew up as child television stars, though on separate networks, and later found ways to break out beyond their initial roles later in life.

Duff, 35, saw her breakout role in Lizzie McGuire, as Lizzie McGuire, on Disney Channel in the early 2000s. Peck, 36, really broke onto the scene in 2004 as Josh of 'Drake & Josh' on Nickelodeon.

Today, Duff is most prominently the lead on 'How I Met Your Father.' Peck is also part of the cast, which brought them together as adults after running similar circles in their youth.

Duff recently joined Peck on his GOOD GUYS Podcast and the two discussed a variety of topics. A large portion of the conversation, though, stemmed from their similar backgrounds in entertainment.

In that regard, Peck and Duff spoke about how they both had to push past 'Josh' of Drake & Josh and 'Lizzie' to find themselves, not just their characters. The former spoke to his time at Nick.

I always say with Drake and Josh, like Nickelodeon sort of had a setup where they were like, 'once you're 18 and the show's done, we're done' because you've probably just aged out of the demo. And I feel like Disney did a little bit of a better job of saying like, 'if you can sing, we'll push that. If you have like any other talents, we want to grow with you.' Was that sort of a conversation?

Duff didn't quite see her experience with Disney in that way.

I'm just gonna have to like dig back in the files for a minute, because it wasn't really like that. I, at the time, wanted to start singing and they were not super on board. Like they didn't want to sign me right away. So it wasn't like they were like, 'let's just juice this for what we can.' It was my idea, I wanted to sing. I really didn't want to be Lizzie McGuire anymore.

Over the course of 13 years, Duff released five albums and toured four times. She found solace in becoming herself and her own brand.

You know how that flip happens so fast. Like for so long, people were just like, 'Lizzie, Lizzie, Lizzie.' And still now to this day, which it doesn't bother me anymore, but it did for awhile. I just desperately needed to be my own person, you know? And I think that I thought music was going to be a good way to reintroduce myself. And it was!

Duff and Peck may not have had the exact same experience, but they shared the same struggle. They both sought ways to become something bigger than their television personas and took different paths to get there.

Here is the full conversation: