| “ | If people don't like me for whatever I do, for being me, then that's too bad. I don't want to change to be something that I'm not for other people to like me. | ” |
Gabriella Montez is known for being one of the smartest girls at East High. She is the girlfriend of Troy Bolton. She is also one of the sweetest and most gentle girls on campus. Gabriella is the only child to Maria and Carlos Montez.
Extraordinarily beautiful and academically gifted, Gabriella is constantly examining what she wants for herself. In contrast to Troy, whose main concern about auditioning for a musical is how his friends will react, her main concern is how it will affect her as an individual. She tends to be shy and private about her feelings and prefers not to be in the spotlight. Her main tool for making decisions seems to revolve around what she wants for herself independently.
Though she doesn’t like to be the center of attention, Gabriella’s shyness seems to dissipate when she loses herself in a song and lets herself live in the moment. She urges Troy to enjoy the present rather than worry about the future in the second season. In Season 2, her selfness is shown by her reluctance to think about the future and lose the joys the present has brought her. She seems happiest when enjoying the current moment, whether it’s dancing with Troy on the school roof or taking funny pictures for the yearbook.
Though thinking about the future tends to bring her down, she realizes that she can’t run away from it forever. She has the ability to intuitively read Troy and his motives, and she develops a clearer insight of what she wants for herself throughout the two seasons.
The interaction between her and her best friend Taylor, a dominant academic genius, particularly in the second season, best demonstrates her inferior self. She finds it hard to make decisions concerning college and such, it makes it difficult for her to be decisive and give practical factors higher priority than personal factors. Taylor scolds her for wanting to give up the opportunity to go to Stanford early so that she can be with Troy, whom she sees as clouding Gabriella’s judgment.
Nonetheless, she is shown to be an excellent student with good organizational skills and self-reliance.
Personality and Traits
| “ | Being cool is being your own self, not doing something that someone else is telling you to do. | ” |
As East High's "Sweetheart", Gabriella Montez is filled to the brim with love and affection, sweet to nearly everyone she comes across, and can typically see the beauty in most things. Gabriella's kindness is sometimes exploited by other characters, but she values her good-natured spirit, as it often brings happiness to others, and is something she strives to accomplish regularly. She is quite empathetic in this regard, to the point where she'll take someone else's problems and seek to rectify it herself, even if that someone may be her enemy. Intelligent and bubbly, Gabriella often serves as the "voice-of-reason" amongst her friends. She is kind-hearted, sweet, loyal, caring and charming. She doesn't mind helping others. Gabriella is not the kind of girl who gives into peer pressure (usually), as shown whenever Sharpay look for sabotage. Gabriella is also outspoken when dealing with adversaries. She is intolerant toward any kind of rudeness or bullying, especially when the bullying is related to misogynistic and prejudice viewpoints.
Gabriella may come off as shy at first but once you open up to her, she's very outgoing and encouraging as well. Though her emotions get to the best of her, that doesn't change her a bit. Gabriella does not wish to be "used" or "deceived" as well as any other typical teenage girl would. She can also be extremely stubborn and doesn't take orders (or even advice) from anyone, always going by her own rules and doing what she believes is best. Though this is a positive trait in that it makes her independent and confident, it also leads her to act rash and compulsive, at least until she realizes the troubles she's caused.
To her core, Gabriella is a lover — of life, nature, her friends, and most significantly Troy, who serves not only as her boyfriend but also her best friend. As she believes in the "true love" commonly found in fairy tales, Gabriella is rather dreamy and whimsical (contrary to her more no-nonsense side), something she is completely unapologetic for.