Vanessa Hudgens is All Grown Up

Vanessa Hudgens, 24, made a name for herself as a sticky-sweet Disney songstress in the "High School Musical" series —but if her new photo shoot in Paper magazine is any indication, she's shedding that image for a decidedly darker one.

No more baby doll dresses, pastel cardigans and headbands—instead Hudgens channels rocker Joan Jett with spiked black hair, 80s-inspired makeup, teases the camera in a striped Dior strapless dress, arches her back in a Jeremy Scott metallic gold mini, and rocks a "Fuck yeah" attitude. The only traces of her humble roots is a shot of her sticking her tongue out wearing a black Marc Jacobs sweater with Mickey Mouse embroidered on the front.

Those nude photos that surfaced in 2007, 2009, and 2011 which Hudgens calls "a really shitty situation that sucked" and "by far the worst moment of my career" may have inadvertently paved the way for a more mature Hudgens, one that caught the eye of "Kids" director Harmony Korine when he was casting for his film "Spring Breakers" (March 15th).

The film is about four besties (including Selena Gomez and ABC Family actress Ashley Benson) who leave their college campus one night to rob a restaurant to fund their spring break trip. After they're arrested, a gangster named Alien (played by James Franco) rescues them and sucks them into his own seedy world. 

Hudgens' scenes are surprisingly gritty—taking bong hits, snorting coke, draping suggestively over her female costars, and shoving a gun in Franco's mouth—but that's just what Korine was aiming for because the world "is not used to seeing her this way."

Maybe we'll get used to it. For her role in the upcoming "Gimme Shelter" Hudgens gained 15 pounds, cut her hair, wore fake piercings and spent lots of time inside homes for pregnant teens. She says the preparation was so jarring that it took a minute to feel like herself again. Have we met the new Vanessa Hudgens?  "It's nice to be girly!" she says. "I need my nails and my hair." Baby steps.