Hilary Duff Reflects on the Powerful Response to Her ‘Stronger, Not Smaller’ Campaign With Ladder

2 min readIn April, Hilary Duff partnered with the fitness platform Ladder to deliver a powerful battlecry for women: “Stronger, Not Smaller.” It’s an ethos the 38-year-old performer has fully embodied, as she trained with Ladder coach Kelly Matthews, CPT, to prepare for the rigors of her Lucky Me world tour. (She’s since switched to coach Elise Young’s Team Elevate while on tour, since it requires less equipment.)The ad campaign, Ladder’s first-ever with a celebrity, resonated with women around the globe, who took to social media to share their own strength stories. Now, a few months later, Hilary’s taking a moment to reflect on the empowering partnership and the response.“I loved the reaction to ‘Stronger, Not Smaller,’” she says in a Women’s Health exclusive. “I love to move weights. I love to be strong. I love to feel strong, and that looks like many different shapes and sizes. It's not powerful to want to shrink and be a smaller version of yourself, and spreading that word, I think, is really important.”Ladder’s trainers have also been vigilant about spreading the virtues of strength—both on the platform and in their interactions with the people who matter most in their lives.“’Stronger, Not Smaller’ goes well beyond anything physical for me,” says Lauren Kanski, CPT, a senior founding coach at Ladder and member of the WH advisory board. “As a mom of two under two, the example I set, especially for my daughter, is everything. Growing up, I was focused on shrinking myself to fit in, but when I found strength training, everything changed. On Ladder, I get to instill that mindset shift to thousands of women every day—just real strength training that works, no matter where they're starting from.”For Duff’s pre-tour trainer Matthews, it’s a sentiment she wishes she’d heard earlier in life, but is fully embracing now. “’Stronger, Not Smaller’ is the decision I make every day when I choose to lift,” she says. “It's the message I needed to hear 20 years ago, but never got. On Ladder, I get to coach women to lift heavy and build real, lasting strength. Strength training is permission to see what your body is capable of to heal it properly and test its limits. It's healing a younger version of me and protecting a future one. That's why I want every woman's strength training.”The good news is it’s never too late to start a strength-training routine—and reap the benefits. Hilary experienced that first-hand when she started her lifting journey. “My training shifted more to strength training, and everything changed for me—how I feel, how I move, how I sleep, how I perform in every area of my life,” she said during the campaign’s launch.And who wouldn’t want a little bit of that magic for themselves?!Amy Wilkinson is a contributing entertainment editor at Women's Health, where she edits the magazine's celebrity cover stories and writes health features. She has previously held editor titles at Entertainment Weekly and MTV News. In 2021, Amy completed her 600-hour teacher-training at Core Pilates NYC to become a comprehensively trained Pilates instructor.