Ashley Tisdale: Guilty Pleasure Isn't Guilty At All...

'High School Musical' star Ashley Tisdale (to the left, looking very Hilary Duff during her 'Dignity' stage, no?) will be gracing the cover of Cosmopolitan Magazine for their April issue. This is in support of her upcoming sophomore album, due for a May release. The album's first single, "It's Alright, It's OK", will hit radio in the middle of next month, so it should be leaking soon.

I've always been a fan of Ms. Tisdale from the day several years back when I was flipping through channels and landed on "The Suite Life of Zack And Cody". She's adorable, has a great sense of comic timing, but most especially, she has a warm quality to her. Like she could be the girl next door. She's gorgeous, but not to a degree where it just feels fake. She's trendy without trying too hard.

But what I love most about Ashley is her sense of dignity. She acknowledges her power in the spotlight, but never exploited her fame. Unlike her BFF Vanessa Hudgens, she continues to be classy and graceful in the public mindset. She's sexy without being trashy, and I feel like she's an excellent role model to young women. She's a perfect example of being able to bridge the gap between child star and young adult star.

Of course, people tend to gloss over the fact that when Ashley first skyrocketed to proper fame in early 2006, she was 20 years old. Still young, to be sure, but hardly a child star like her contemporary Miley Cyrus. Now, Ashley is 23 years old, and her look is mirroring her young woman status. The promotional pictures that now grace her official website 's background are a bit jarring to a public that has only really gotten to know her as the blonde drama queen in the "High School Musical" franchise, but I appreciate that she is handling the difficult transition gracefully. Nothing feels too gratuitous or pushed.

Now, I'm hardly one to say she has an incredible voice, and usually with musicians, that is the thing that most gets my attention. With Ashley, its her likeability. There is absolutely no doubt that Auto-Tune plays a major factor in her music, but when I first got a copy of Headstrong when it was released in 2007, I was more than pleasantly surprised. It was full of feel-good pop that was sing-along-able and fun to dance to, even for someone who was a little bit older than her key demographic. She stands alone of her HSM fellows in signing with Warner Brothers Records over the omnipresent Hollywood Records (Miley, Jonas Brothers, Corbin Bleu, Vanessa Hudgens, Aly & AJ). The album featured writing by Kara DioGuardi, Diane Warren, Shelly Peiken and Guy Roche. Her first single, "He Said She Said", was written/produced by JR Rotem & Ryan Tedder (of OneRepublic). And it was one of the few albums released in a while where I could listen, groove and sing along without skipping any tracks. Ashley strikes me as the type of chick that would fit into my little circle of girlies, dressing up and going out on the weekends to dance clubs to dance and have fun together, not to be at the scene and cruise for boys. ;)

I'm looking forward to a similar fate for her upcoming album, entitled Guilty Pleasure (I love the title!). I heard a leaked version of the JR Rotem track "I'm Back/I'm That" a few months ago and adored it, even though it sounded very 'Headstrong' ish. Ashley has stated her new album will be darker, sexier and more rock-ish...and I'm interested to see the cards she has up her sleeve.

Listen to "I'm Back/I'm That" below.