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Hilary Duff<\/a> is a pro at delivering commencement speeches, thanks to her epic graduation speech as seen in The Lizzie McGuire Movie<\/em>. So when it came time to deliver a real life one, the star pulled out all the stops and said some truly memorable words\u2014which later divided the internet once the speech hit social media.<\/p>\n Hilary gave the commencement address during Northeastern University’s graduation ceremony at Fenway Park in Boston on April 29, and in her time onstage, she encourage the graduates to stay true to themselves and be cautious about accepting opportunities before thinking it through.<\/p>\n \u201cJust because something is a good opportunity or a good paycheck doesn\u2019t mean it\u2019s right,\u201d she told the graduates and families in attendance. \u201cBy simply accepting what the world was offering to me, I was losing my own voice; I was reacting, instead of asking myself what I really wanted. That realization was a paradigm shift for me.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI knew I had to change my pattern of saying \u2018yes,\u2019 so I took a break from making music,\u201d she continued. \u201cNot because I didn\u2019t know exactly what kind of album I wanted to make or what kind of stories I wanted to tell through my music, because I knew precisely what I wanted. But I somehow knew that I couldn\u2019t authentically make it, yet.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSo I made a choice, and I took a step back. I pivoted. I rebuilt myself, I refilled my tank, I put effort into my relationships, into building my family and building a business,\u201d Hilary added. \u201cI waited until I was ready to meet the moment. I realized that saying \u2018no\u2019 wasn\u2019t rejection, it was redirection\u2026 I took back control of what I was building, and I reclaimed my story. And I realized my own agency. I\u2019m grateful I had the ability to take that pause\u2026 the key is that I was choosing where my energy went instead of letting others choose for me. Don\u2019t forget to pause and appreciate how far you\u2019ve come.\u201d<\/p>\n Boston Globe – Getty Images<\/span><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n Though our fav actress-pop star\u2019s advice was solid\u2014um, why couldn\u2019t she have spoken at MY graduation???\u2014opinions on the speech were surprisingly divided, with some fully embracing Hilary\u2019s message and praising her for being levelheaded in her career, while some noted that the \u201csaying no\u201d aspect of the speech is reserved for the privileged class only.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m so happy for @hilaryduff<\/a> for doing things on her terms, staying true to herself, and taking a step back when necessary,\u201d one fan of the Younger<\/em> star wrote on Instagram<\/a>. \u201cEverything I\u2019ve seen of her recently has been so powerful, moving and motivating. She\u2019s successfully balanced owning her past and reality and living fully and being present.\u201d Another commenter added, \u201cSaying no it also opens other doors, maybe one that matches your energy and happiness better.\u201d<\/p>\n Those on the opposing camp noted that having a certain amount of money offers more opportunities to say no. \u201cI love her but people in the real world can\u2019t afford to say no to certain opportunities as freely. That\u2019s a freedom that comes with having money,\u201d one person wrote, while another user commented, \u201cMany times we just don’t have any other choice, right? Having the choice to say NO\u2026it’s a privilege.\u201d<\/p>\n The discussion continued on Reddit<\/a>, with a top comment reading, \u201cSadly, without financial freedom “every opportunity” is usually exactly one opportunity if that, and there is no luxury to be able to say no.\u201d In response, another Redditor wrote, \u201cI was at the ceremony and the people behind me were not having it \ud83e\udd23 but yea 100% when you work some childhood and had success then you can afford a break later.\u201d<\/p>\n I, personally, teared up hearing Hilary\u2019s words (that is a separate conversation for my therapist), but you can listen to the speech in full and decide for yourself:<\/p>\n You Might Also Like<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n \/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js<\/a> Hilary Duff delivered the commencement address during Northeastern University’s graduation ceremony on April 29. In the speech, The Lizzie McGuire star gave graduates advice on how to approach their future, and encouraged them to be cautious about saying yes to every opportunity. The speech divided the internet, with some saying that her advice was solid, … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":29472,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29471","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Hilary-Duffs-Commencement-Speech-for-Northwestern-University-Is-Dividing-the.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29471","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=29471"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29471\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29473,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29471\/revisions\/29473"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/29472"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=29471"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=29471"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=29471"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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