Originally appeared on E! Online
Ashley Tisdale is bop, bop, boppin’ her new moniker to the top.
As she continues to expand her Frenshe wellness brand, the “High School Musical” star — who’s married to Christopher French — shared that she’s now going by her marital name professionally.
“I’ve been Ashley French for so long at home,” Tisdale, 40, explained in her Nov. 17 TikTok video. “But I’ve never really changed [my name] publicly because everybody knows me as Ashley Tisdale. I just felt like it was time for people to know me for me, and not just for a character or a celebrity.”
After all, the “Be Good to Me” singer “has so much to talk about” in her personal life, such as “being in my 40s” and “being a parent” to her kids Jupiter, 4, and Emerson, 13 months. Though Tisdale has shared insight into her family dynamic over the years, she wants to use her wellness brand — including her “recently launched” website, By Ashley French — as a safe space to document her motherhood journey.
READ: Ashley Tisdale Shares Her Daughter’s Reaction to Seeing High School Musical
But that wasn’t the sole reason she created the site, as the Disney Channel alum admitted that social media’s evolving landscape inspired her to build her own platform.
“I just think Instagram has changed a lot,” she explained. “At this point, you don’t know what’s real and what’s a bot. Everyone always has something to say, and it might not be positive — not that I want to block out the negativity. But I felt like in order to protect my peace, I didn’t want to keep sharing that way.”
This isn’t the first time Tisdale has talked about her layered relationship with social media. In fact, the “He Said She Said” artist announced she was taking a break from the online space earlier this year.
“As the world is getting loud, I find myself wanting to share less and less,” she wrote in an Instagram Stories in February. “Maybe it’s because I don’t feel I can contribute in my positive way when everything feels so negative.
“I’ve been loving putting my phone down and being in the moment,” she continued. “Social media is such a blessing when you want to connect with everyone but can also be so noisy when used with judgement and assumptions.”
