It wasn’t just a concert, it was a reclamation.

Over the weekend I took my bestie to see Hilary Duff in concert at the AO arena in Manchester and I genuinely wasn’t prepared for how emotional it would feel. 

And judging by everything I’m seeing online, I wasn’t the only one. 

Countless posts and reels have been popping up on my Instagram feed expressing the outpouring of love, joy and excitement for the return of our Disney Queen, first introduced to us as Lizzie McGuire back in 2001. 

But, people are not just talking about how incredible the show was - they are recounting core memories, reminiscing about pivotal moments they had as kids, and the nostalgia for a simpler time is stronger than ever. 

For so many of us, this isn’t a homecoming for a child star turned popstar, it’s a declaration that no longer do we have to feel shame or hide the urge to ‘do a crazy dance’, as Hilary’s banger of a hit ’Why Not’ reminds us. 

The concert wasn’t about polish or putting on a facade - although, every camera angle, pose, outfit, pyrotechnic, and smile to the audience was a masterclass in how to produce a show - it was about stripping it right back to who we are inside and letting our inner child free.

A lot of people have made jokes that they were “healed” from this show, but honestly, I truly believe it’s true for so many Millennials. 

Our generation has been through so much and in 2026, we are desperately reminding ourselves of simpler times - when the future seemed so distant and exciting, and we had to unplug the telephone to dial into the internet. 

Our lives have become bombarded by a constant stream of overstimulation that it is becoming increasingly more difficult to switch off. Sometimes, all you want to do is go to your bedroom, put on a Hilary Duff CD and sing into your hairbrush whilst bouncing on your bed. 

Hilary has singlehandedly given us all the reset button and boy, have we jumped at the chance to press it!

Now is the time for a reset. Now is the time to remember who we are instead of living up to the standards that others have placed on us. 

We often talk about nostalgia as though it means wishing we could turn back time.

But most of us don’t actually want to go back.

I don’t want to be ten again.

But, I want some of what ten-year-old me felt.

The excitement, the imagination, the possibility.
The absolute certainty that I could dream about something simply because I wanted it.

I want a bit more of the me that was before we learned to ask whether something was realistic, or worried about looking stupid.

Before careers, mortgages, algorithms, notifications, comparison and the never-ending pressure to have our lives figured out.

There was a version of us who could turn a bedroom into a stage. A towel into a cape. A garden into another planet.

We didn't need permission to imagine.

And somewhere along the way, many of us became very good at being adults - and very bad at being alive.

So I ask you this, ‘Why not take a crazy chance’?