I absolutely adore the HSM franchise! It’s officially been 20 years since the first High School Musical movie landed on Disney Channel.

So let’s talk about some interesting knowledge linked to these epic movies that still hold a special place in the hearts of millennials everywhere.

Vanessa Hudgens’ nude photo leak scandal of 2007 happened around the time the second High School Musical movie was being filmed and released. The photos leaked without her permission, and according to her 2020 interview with Cosmopolitan, the experience was “traumatizing.”

She said, “It’s really fucked up that people feel like they’re entitled enough to share something that personal with the world. As an actor, you completely lose all grip of your own privacy and it’s really sad.”

Vanessa was forced to apologize for the scandal back then, but thankfully times have changed. If this were to have happened today, she would not have been forced to apologize.

She was the one who was violated because some disgusting pervert hacked into her devices and leaked those photos to the world.

The photos were taken privately and intimately for her boyfriend at the time, Zac Efron. The only person who should have laid eyes on those photos with Zac Efron.

I’m honestly extremely relieved that Vanessa wasn’t punished to the point of getting fired by Disney Channel and they still allowed her to continue filming the third movie of the franchise.

Back then, Disney Channel stars were constantly being slut shamed for small things.

For example, Bella Thorne was allegedly blacklisted from future Disney Channel projects because she posted bikini pictures on social media while she was filming Shake it Up with Zendaya.

So if that serves as any context, I am extremely grateful Vanessa wasn’t fired from Disney Channel.