Vanessa Hudgens shared some sweet Flashback Friday photos to Instagram today, calling the images “wholesome High School Musical content” and herself “Baby V.” The actress flashed back 14 years to when she first starred in Disney’s High School Musical , sharing pics from the movie series that made her a teen superstar.
The first in the series of three photos showed Vanessa on the set of the film, which was a Disney Channel Original Movie that aired in 2006.
Just 16-years-old when the movie was shot, Vanessa played Gabriella Montez, a sweet and brainy new girl in school who fell in love with the school’s hotshot basketball player on New Year’s Eve and later found they went to the same school.
Gabriella’s brainy friends didn’t gel with Troy’s ( Zac Efron ) basketball buddies, and the only common ground they had was their shared love of performing. They eventually starred in the school musical together, blending their two different worlds.
In the first image, Vanessa is laughing while wearing the iconic red dress best known by fans of the movie from the final scene. She’s seated alongside a camera.
In the second photo, the actress is looking outward onto the set.
Filming for the scenes depicted in the images took place on a basketball court. The memorable moment was the performance segment of the tune, “We’re All in this Together,” a song where all the lead characters celebrate the victory of the basketball team by singing and dancing with one another.
The lead performers in the song were Vanessa and Zac, who would later go on to become a romantic couple off-screen, dating for five years until their romance fizzled in 2010.
Also in that scene were the other teen stars of the film, including Corbin Bleu, Ashley Tisdale, Lucas Grabeel, Olesya Rulin, Monique Coleman, and Kaycee Stroh.
In the final photo, Vanessa is seen with co-stars Lucas and Ashley. Vanessa is wearing a white tank top with a flowered trim at the neckline. She is wearing jeans and her long, dark hair parted to the side and secured away from her left ear with a hairclip.
Fans were ecstatic over the images, which conjured up wonderful memories for many who have followed the actress since her work in the first of three movies.
The sequels to the wildly popular first movie included High School Musical 2, which was also a Disney Channel Original Movie, and High School Musical 3: Senior Year which was released in theaters.
“How did you look a THOUSAND times better than I EVER did at 16?! What a baby!” said a fan on the social media site.
“You didn’t change at all in the last ten years,” shared a second admirer of the actress and singer.
“The classic red dress Gabriella wore. I wanted it so badly as a kid,” remarked a final fan of both the film series and Vanessa.
