Hilary Duff Instagrams Ed Sheeran Collab

Hey, remember that super great news from last week? You know, about how Hilary Duff is releasing her first album since 2007's "Dignity," and that Ed Sheeran is going to make a guest appearance on it? I can't be the only person whose inner teenybopper is basically shaking with excitement over this! And now there's photographic evidence that this is more than just a 14-year-old's fever dream: Ms. Duff has Instagrammed a picture of herself and Sheeran in the recording studio, ready to make some pop music magic.

What's most exciting about this to me is that it's bringing Duff's fanbase — preteen Lizzie McGuire fans who grew up into twentysomething Lizzie McGuire fans — together with Sheeran's fanbase — preteens who are too young to remember when Lizzie McGuire was on TV. It's the melding together of my childhood with the childhood of people still experiencing childhood, and there's something really comforting about that. I remember buying Duff's first album Metamorphosis when I was 13. Back then, I thought she was just about the coolest person in the world, and the fact that she's still making music that will appeal to an audience of young girls looking for an older sister-type role model is a sweet and funny reminder that time moves on, but things never really change.

Or, maybe I'm just excited because I've come to secretly love Ed Sheeran.

The point is, there is an album slated to drop later this year that features brand new music by Ed Sheeran and the long-since-absent Hilary Duff, and that's a lot to get excited about.

Image: HilaryDuff/Instagram