For millions of 'High School Musical' fans, Ashley Tisdale will forever be connected to the pink-loving, severely self-obsessed Sharpay Evans. But just as Evans has graduated from East High, Tisdale herself has moved on. With her second album, 'Guilty Pleasure', the actress/singer shows she is all grown up, co-writing songs about heartache and friends with benefits with such hit makers as 'American Idol' judge Kara Dioguardi, and revealing herself in a way that Evans never would: "I think the whole album for me makes me very vulnerable, because it's who I am," she says. "I've put my heart and soul into this album."

In an AOL Sessions interview taped shortly before her 24th birthday, Tisdale talks about her shock at winning an MTV Movie Award, if the old gang ever gets together and the line between sexy and suggestive.

Interview
AOL: You can't name an album 'Guilty Pleasure' and not expect to be asked what's your favorite guilty pleasure.

Ashley: Probably designer bags. It's a bad addiction!

AOL: What is your favorite fashion trend this year or trends?

Ashley: I don't know if it's a trend, but I'm really into the combat boots. I like to wear them with shorts, jeans -- you can dress it up; you can dress it down, skirts. I'm really into the boots.

AOL: Are you comfortable with being seen as a trendsetter?

Ashley: I don't think of myself in that way when I'm, like, getting changed or anything like that. I just think that's pretty cool if people really like my style. That's awesome.

AOL: What did you want to say with 'Guilty Pleasure' that you weren't able to say with your first album, 2007's 'Headstrong'?

Ashley: The first album was just me learning about myself as an artist and where I was. So 'Guilty Pleasure,' I knew exactly what I wanted going into it. I just really want it to be a reflection of who I am and where I am in my life right now. It's a little bit edgier, a little bit more mature. I'm 23 turning 24, and it's a different side of me that people haven't seen.

AOL: Many songs on the album, like 'Hair,' are really sexy, but never cross over to suggestive. How do you tread that line?

Ashley: In anything that I do, I don't think I'd ever want to come off slutty or anything. I'm a woman. I'm 23 years old, but I never had producers really recommending [those] songs or giving me [those] songs. They know who I am and what I will do and what I won't do, so I never was really put into that position.

AOL: Beyonce has an alter-ego, Sasha Fierce, when she goes on stage. Do you?

Ashley: I do have a little bit of a weird personality that comes out onstage. I'm not going to tell you the name of it though. I am quite shy in real life, but when I'm in performance mode, whether that's in an interview or on stage or doing a movie, I do come out of my shell a lot more. People don't expect me to be shy, but I am.

AOL: Let's talk about your new movie 'Aliens in the Attic'.

Ashley: 'Aliens in the Attic' is a really fun family movie. My character Bethany is the older sister. She's the bratty, older sister, who's just really in love with her boyfriend, played by Robert Hoffman from 'Step Up 2.' Because she's so in love, she doesn't know what's going on and they're being invaded by aliens at their vacation home in Maine. We had a great cast. Kevin Nealon, Doris Roberts, Tim Meadows, Andy Richter, a lot of comedians -- I could not keep a straight face half the time.

AOL: You recently won the breakthrough female award at the MTV Movie Awards. What went through your mind when they called your name?

Ashley: When I had gotten the news that I was nominated, I was completely shocked and excited, and then when I actually won, I was even more shocked and excited. It was really cool. I got up there and I couldn't remember what I said when I got off the stage. I was, like, "Did I thank my parents?" It was really one of the coolest experiences.

AOL: What do you miss about Sharpay?

Ashley: She's always wanting more, so she's never satisfied. But, you know, it was just the overall experience. It was always just the six of us and the characters that we got to play. She's the mean queen, but yet she does have a heart -- it's just really deep inside. She's got everything. She's like a Barbie, so of course I loved playing her. She was awesome.

AOL: Do you stay in touch with the 'HSM' cast?

Ashley: All the time. Zac [Efron] was just over at my house last night. Vanessa's doing a movie right now in Montreal, but we talk all the time. I just saw Monique recently; we Twitter each other. They're my family. I love them.

AOL: What is the hardest thing about living life in the public eye?

Ashley: It's weird because you have people outside your door at your house that just want to follow you around and take pictures of you going to get coffee and doing random things that I don't find interesting, but they do. So it's weird, but being in this business, you're going to know eventually that that might happen. Nobody prepares you for it. I try to just ignore it.

--Melinda Newman