‘The older I get, the more I realise it’s so important to let your inner child sparkle’: Vanessa Hudgens is our December coverstar

While Vanessa is understandably hesitant to talk too much about projects before they happen, there is one that she doesn’t mind putting out there: her own mother’s story of coming to the United States at the age of 25. “My mom is from the Philippines, and growing up there weren’t really that many women who looked like me and my mom and my family on screen,” she says. “It’s so important to share all the different stories because America is a massive melting pot, [just like the] world. There are so many different stories that need to be told so that we are exposed to them and can have more empathy towards different people.” Her hope is that her mother will write a book that Vanessa can one day turn into a film.

She continues: “As an immigrant, coming into the States and not knowing anyone, I can’t even imagine how difficult and challenging that is and what challenges she faced as a woman. And my father was a firefighter, so he was gone for a week and home for a week.” She says that while he was away, it was just her and her mom, Gina, until her younger sister, Stella – also an actor – came along. But at the time, her mother was finding her way in a new country with a young child. “I feel like that’s such a relatable story to so many women all over the world. The more that we can share, the more we can lift each other up.”

Leaning on the women in her life was never more needed than when Vanessa’s father, Greg, passed away from stage 4 cancer the evening before she was set to play Rizzo in Fox’s ambitious production of Grease: Live! in 2016. “There was never a moment where I thought that I wouldn’t do [Grease: Live!] because my dad would want me to do it,” she says looking back. “He gave so much time and energy into me achieving my dreams and for me to have a career where I can do what I love. So I felt like I needed to do it, because that’s what he would’ve wanted [me] to do. Obviously if I [hadn’t], that would be OK, too. But knowing that I was kind of doing it in honour of him is what made it really special and made me feel even more connected to him.”

It also taught her to be more protective of her own mental health. “You’ve got to take care of yourself. It’s easy to spread yourself in a million different directions, but at the end of the day, you are left to deal with yourself,” she says of how she looks after herself. “You have to take the appropriate steps.” She points to spending time with good friends, as well as the power of a soothing self-care routine. “Skincare is a big thing for me. It’s really nice at the end of the day and in the morning to have a moment with yourself in the mirror and know that you’re taking time out of your day to love on yourself.” A productive workout session is also helpful, she says, because, “Sometimes I’ll be at the gym and I will not want to do something, but I’ll push through it. Celebrating those small wins is so important for happiness.”

So, going back to the initial question of just who is Vanessa Hudgens, she says it’s hard to say. “[I’m] so many different things. There’s the version of myself that is the most comfortable at home in my pyjamas with my girlfriends, a glass of wine, skipping around listening to music, but then there’s another version that feels most me when I’m done to the nines and my face is beat and my hair is snatched and I’ve got a dress on that is ready to stop traffic,” she says with a smile. “There’s so many different versions of myself, but I feel like the throughline is playfulness. I have a very youthful spirit.”