Ashley Tisdale is successful because she's blonde. The "High School Musical" star says she only got her big break after she dyed her brunette hair to blonde.

She says, "It suits my personality. I guess I was a brunette with a blonde personality. I have been blonde for a while now. At first it was really shocking and I didn't know what to think, it felt like another person in the mirror. But now I am comfortable with it."

And although the jokes say otherwise, the 22-year-old actress insists, "Blondes aren't dumb. I am smart and I don't think all of us are ditzy."

But Tisdale, who plays bratty Sharpay in the hit teen made-for-TV-movie, swears she's nothing like her character. She also insists that she is determined to avoid young Hollywood's decadent lifestyle.

She continues, "I don't drink, I don't smoke and I don't go clubbing so a lot of those problems go away. The difference is I play young but I am 22 and have been in this business since I was three years old. It just depends how you were raised but success does come early for some people."

Citing other blonde tabloid magnets, Tisdale says she's glad she didn't have the pressure they had when they got their success at an early age.

She says, "Lindsay [Lohan] and Britney [Spears] had success really early and that is a lot of pressure. For me, I am glad it came at this time and I got to finish high school. I know who I am and what I want from life and I am mature about life. I am able to go out there and get what I want."