Duff uses Olsen to blast teen pressure

Teen singer Hilary Duff has blamed the intense pressure heaped on young stars for causing TV rival Mary Kate Olsen's battle with anorexia.

At 16, Duff is two years younger than Olsen - who last month checked into a clinic to be treated for the eating disorder - but the So Yesterday star can already empathise with her, because she's fully aware of the demands forced on rising talents to look glamorous.

She says: "It's the pressures put on young celebrities.

"You open a magazine and it's all about someone being too skinny or too fat, no longer pretty, having the wrong hair colour or not making it into the most recent popularity poll.

"(I don't) pretend to know what Mary Kate is going through, but I can understand a bit of it on a certain level.

"As a young celebrity, there are times when you feel your life is being controlled by so many other things that eating is the last thing you really do have some control over."

But she has assured fans she will never succumb to anorexia: "I love food too much. I eat sensibly, but I do love to eat."