Vanessa Hudgens on her journey from teen icon to finding her true self | GLAMOUR UNFILTERED

Women are the most resilient creatures on the planet.

We're unstoppable.

We're so powerful and we can truly do anything

we set our mind to.

[gentle music]

Hey Glamour UK, I'm Vanessa Hudgens,

and welcome to my Unfiltered.

I would never wanna be a Royal.

[laughing]

The idea of it, the chicness of it, it's cute,

but like the reality, I'm just way too goofy.

And I enjoy living my life to the fullest.

The giving back aspect of it, I think is really beautiful,

to be able to make such a significant change.

And that's something that I try to incorporate

into my everyday life and my legacy,

just working with organizations.

But yeah, the day to day of it all, I mean,

I guess I already am under scrutiny,

being someone who is in front of the camera,

but the Royals have it on a whole other level.

Not for me.

I grew up loving all the Disney fairytales, the princesses.

I mean, they were musicals.

Come on, of course I'm gonna love them,

but I never really believed that I needed a man

in order to have all my dreams come true.

That wasn't my takeaway.

My takeaway from those films were life can be magical

and there can be synchronicities

that push you from one place into another

and adversity you may face will push you into your destiny.

And you're probably gonna sing about it along the way.

Feminism to me means being able to do

whatever the hell it is that you wanna do and be supported.

We should have equal rights, we should have equal pay.

We should all be treated equally, and to me,

it's about coming forward and supporting each other,

lifting other women up so that we can achieve

all the things that we wanna do.

And the more that we can lift each other up,

the more support we have, there's power in numbers.

You gotta 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.

So you have to make sure that you're taking

the appropriate steps to feel that you are taken care of.

And for me, there's a lot of different things that I do.

Let go of work, let go of any distractions

and just being present with people

who I love and who love me, it's very important.

Skincare is a big thing for me.

I feel like it's really nice just 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

for yourself, to love on yourself

and know that you're doing something good for yourself.

That's always just a really connecting

and grounding moment for me.

My dad passed away the night before Grace Live

and there was never a moment where I thought

that I wouldn't do it because my dad would want me to do it.

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

and shine to honor him, to me,

that's what made it really special,

knowing that I was kind of doing it in honor of him

just made me feel even more connected to him.

If anything, it just attests to my tenacity and resilience

'cause women are the most resilient creatures on the planet.

And if we tap into that, we're unstoppable,

we're so powerful and we can truly do anything

we set our mind to.

It's hard to say when I feel the most myself,

because myself is so many different things.

There's the version of myself that is the most comfortable

at home in my pajamas with my girlfriends,

sipping a glass of wine, skipping around listening to music.

But then there's all another version

of myself that feels my most me

when I am done to the nines and my face is beat

in my hair snatched, and I've got a dress on

that is ready to stop traffic.

The through line is my playfulness.

I feel like I have a very youthful spirit

and I think that in my younger years,

I tried to fight that because when you're younger,

you wanna be older, you wanna be taken seriously.

And the older that I get,

the more I realize it's so important

to keep that inner child alive and to really celebrate

your inner youth and to not push that down,

to really allow that to sparkle.

I remember coming to set and meeting Holly Hunter there

and just kind of in shock

and looking around like, this is actually happening.

Like I'm working with someone who is phenomenal,

such an amazing actress.

I was just elated.

I love doing musicals, growing up,

doing musicals was my safe space.

That's what got me out of my shell.

And I feel like I really just have the most fun memories

of being in rehearsals and performing.

When I'm performing, I am in heaven.

You know, my mom is from the Philippines

and she came out to the States when she was 25 and had me,

and I just feel like watching films growing up,

there weren't really that many women

who looked like me and my mom and my family.

And it's just so important to share

all the different stories

because like, we are a massive melting pot.

To me, dealing with disappointment

is something that I have had to do at such an early age,

just growing up in the industry,

you are going to be told no way more than you are told yes.

And that's just something that you have to deal with.

And my outlook on it ever since I was young,

was the next thing that comes along

will be bigger and better.

And I truly believe in divine timing

and the power of manifestation,

the power of being very poignant and direct

about what it is that you want

and asking for it and having faith

that it will come your way.

Even if it doesn't come immediately, it will come to you.

Maybe not in the way you expect it, but it will arrive.

When I find myself not getting what I want,

I try to shift my perspective because our perspective

is the one thing that we can control and say,

I didn't get a job that I really wanted.

I'm like, well, that's okay.

Because then I'll have more time to focus on myself

and like work on something that I can dream up of myself

and just having faith that like it wasn't meant to be,

and then call all my friends together.

Community for me is so important.

I think we need others to lean on

and it's okay to ask for help.

And it's okay to cry on someone's shoulder.

That's what friends are for.

I feel very empowered knowing that I am,

I'm working on things and spending my time and energy

going into things that I'm really passionate

and proud of, sharing things that I love

with others feels very empowering and being supported

by people I respect and love is very empowering.

And I think it's always just so important

to lift other people up.

I think always just lift each other up

and spread kindness because that in itself is empowering,

knowing that you can make someone's day better,

that's beautiful, that's powerful.

I feel like I've lived many, many lives,

just because I've been in this industry

for so long, you know, as human beings,

we're always evolving and growing and changing.

And I look back at the girl who just had big dreams

and was so excited and bright eyed and bushy tailed.

And I look at where I am now

and the journey has been all over the map.

You know, I think it takes time

to get comfortable with yourself.

I think that now I'm at a place

where I have peace in the unknown.

I have peace in feeling uprooted and not settled anywhere.

And it's the most freeing thing ever.

And there's so much power within that

because I think it allows me to really just be present

in every moment and to make the best out of every moment,

because this moment is all we really have, so yeah.