A heart-shaped cupcake and a copy of the "Raise Your Voice" DVD to Hilary Duff today, as she'll be celebrating her 22nd birthday today. Miley Cyrus, the Jonas Brothers and whoever else is currently cashing checks on Disney crossover careers should buy Duff a shot today, as she was the guinea pig for the current crop of breakout stars currently enjoying success in the worlds of television, film and music. Duff first came to the attention of the populace as Lizzie McGuire, the feisty teen kid with an animated alter-ego (or something) on the show of the same name. Her ubiquity on what became the Disney Channel's flagship program allowed her to make the jump into movies, where she starred in hits like "A Cinderella Story" and "Agent Cody Banks." Her music career followed soon after, debuting with 2003's Metamorphosis. 2004 must have been a special year for Duff, as her second, self-titled album happened to drop on her birthday.
That album spawned the hits "Fly" and "I Am," though her biggest success remains her debut, which contained the smashes "So Yesterday," "Why Not?" and "Come Clean." The latter tune got a ton of traction by being the theme song to the MTV series "Laguna Beach: The Real Orange County" (where Kristin Cavallari and Lauren Conrad — the current stars of "The Hills" — first got national media attention). But "Come Clean" probably would have become a hit on its own, as it's a top-shelf mix of rock and pop sounds that absolutely predicted the rampaging success of Miley Cyrus that would come later.