Vanessa Hudgens’ Pending Fame?

This morning’s news headlines featured this story on Disney Pop Tart Vanessa Hudgens and her now famous nude photos that have been widely circulated on the internet.  The 18-year old star of the now wildly famous “High School Musical” franchise is barely an adult (and only in legal terms here) and yet, according to media wonks, this photo shoot should catapult little “Gabriella” (Her HSM persona) into the stratosphere.  Just look at this quote…

“Did anybody really know or
care about Paris Hilton before her sex tape surfaced?� a high-profile
television executive told FOXNews.com. “This scandal is making her a
household name — it will definitely elevate her into real star-studded
status.�

Wow!  “Real” star studded status.  As if being a multimillionaire in your teens isn’t enough.  Through careful marketing of not only the movies but also all the paraphernalia related with it, Hudgens has set her and her future family up for life.  Even before this scandal surfaced Hudgens and her HSM co-star and current boyfriend Zac Efron were already holding out for multi-millions for the theater version of High School Musical 3 set to debut sometime next year.

Let me tell you what I see…

I see a young girl, very immature, making a very, very foolish mistake.  She must be very insecure to have taken the time to have someone at the ready with a camera to take a picture of her nude while dressing in a bedroom and then to send those pictures across the internet.  According to credible reports, this isn’t the first time this has happened.  When Hudgens was a minor, she reportedly sent risque photos of herself to Nickelodeon’s Drake Bell of the popular “Drake and Josh” series.  This happened before the HSM series takeoff when Hudgens played a bit role as Bell’s girlfriend in one of the shows.  What is going on here?  A young girl with star fantasies badly in need of security.  A real relationship with Jesus is lacking in her life.  Another quote from the article says:

And it seems Ness is certainly
trying to undo the damage, attending church with her parents,
cancelling her Jay Leno interview and posting a message of thanks to
supportive fans on her Web site.

Well, I certainly hope her church attendance was for the right reasons and not a public relations ploy to try to repair her image with pre-teen girls across the country.  THAT has already been irreparably damaged.  My nine-year old, who doesn’t listen to the news, couldn’t help but hear about this scandal from her little friends at school.  She came home and told me she was a “Sharpay” only fan now (Sharpay is the character played by fellow HSM star Ashley Tisdale).

What bothers me most about this is that our culture largely celebrates immaturity like this.  It even revels in it.  Adults especially should be appalled at this.  A girl barely old enough to be a legal adult posing nude and having her body splashed all over the internet.  As a parent, I’m angry because my youngest daughter is now hurt by this and I’m incredulous at the overall response because my oldest daughter is just 18 months younger than Hudgens (or to look at it another way, she’s as old as Hugens was when the first HSM film was made in 2005 and debuted in January of 2006).

I pray God will give us a sense or morality about this and that parents will use this as a way to train their children to make wise choices and give in foolishly to what the mainstream says is quite alright.