Vanessa Hudgens opens up about naked photo scandal

High School Musical star Vanessa Hudgens has opened up about her nude photo scandal, admitting: "Kids do stupid things."

The 19-year-old actress was forced to apologise to movie bosses after naked snaps of her ended up on the Internet last year.

But now she has spoken out about the experience - and has asked her fans to support her.

She said: "I'm much better now. But truthfully I don't like talking about it. It was something that was meant to be private, and even though it isn't anymore, I'd still like to keep it as private as I can. It was very traumatic, and I am extremely upset it happened.

"I hope all my fans can learn from my mistake and make smart decisions. But I wouldn't have been able to get through it if it wasn't for my family, friends, and fans, who supported me all along the way."

The scandal almost forced the youngster to be axed from the wildly popular Disney franchise.

But she bounced back and won a big pay rise to appear in the third installment of the film series, which begins shooting this month [Jan 2008].

And she said the most embarrassing thing was trying to explain it to her mother.

She said: "I was just open with her, and she was just so cute. She was like, 'Well, everyone can be naked if they want to.'

"My parents are very supportive of me. And they know I'm a teenager, and yes, kids do stupid things sometimes.

"It's very unfortunate because with the Internet these days, you don't have a personal life. Nothing is private - everyone knows everything, and they can find out everything about you. "You're not as safe as you think you are, and you have to be aware of the people you're around."

She told a US magazine that she first learned her private pictures had been leaked from her manager.

She said: "I found out from my manager. We heard some story was going to break in the tabloids, and I was like, 'What?!?'

"A few days later, the picture came out while I was on vacation in Australia."

She told teenage girls' magazine Seventeen in its February 2008 issue: "Thank God, I wasn't home - it would have sucked if I was at home. So I got to be away from Los Angeles for about a millisecond. But when I came back, it got kind of crazy."