 | | Best known as Gabrielle Montez from the hit Disney Channel movie and soundtrack album High School Musical, actress/singer Vanessa Anne Hudgens has also appeared on Drake & Josh and The Sweet Life of Zack and Cody. |
 | | Best known for her roles in the High School Musical films and the TV series The Suite Life of Zack & Cody, New Jersey-born actress/singer/model Ashley Tisdale began her career in show business at age three, and sang for President Bill Clinton at age 12. |
 | | Born in Brooklyn in 1989, Corbin Bleu began acting and modeling as a toddler, appearing in commercials and print ads for the likes of Hasbro, Nabisco, Gap, and Target. |
 | | Sister acting/singing duo Aly & AJ -- whose full names are Alyson and Amanda Joy Michalka -- showed a passion for both kinds of performing at a very young age: they started playing piano at age six and began acting classes soon after. |
 | | Going from a series of books about a girl pop band to a series of Disney TV movies about a girl pop band to an actual, touring girl pop band, the Cheetah Girls began as fictional characters in Deborah Gregory's 16 novels for young-adult readers. |
 | | Miley Cyrus became an overnight sensation in 2006 as the star of Hannah Montana, a popular Disney Channel television series whose success allowed Cyrus to launch her own recording career several years later. |
 | | One of the most recognizable characters in modern-day R&B, Beyoncé first rose to fame as the siren-voiced centerpiece of Destiny's Child before embarking on a multi-platinum solo career in 2001. |
 | | An actress and vocalist, Raven-Symoné is perhaps best remembered for portraying Olivia, the youngest member of comedian Bill Cosby's family on the hit NBC sitcom The Cosby Show. |
 | | Best known as Troy Bolton, the captain of the basketball team who discovers a passion for singing in the Disney Channel movie High School Musical, Zac Efron has been an actor and singer since childhood. |
 | | Prior to turning 13, Tiffany Evans, a singer and actor from the Bronx, won the Grand Champion title in the junior singer division of Star Search. |
 | | Rihanna established her dance-pop credentials in summer 2005 with her debut smash hit, "Pon de Replay," and continued to demonstrate hit potential in subsequent years (e. |
 | | Hilary Duff first made a name for herself on the enormously successful Disney Channel/ABC Kids show Lizzie McGuire, which she parlayed into dual careers as a pop singer and film actress. |
 | | One of the most popular teenaged groups of the 2000s, the Jonas Brothers crafted hook-filled power pop anthems in the vein of McFly, Hanson, and the Modern Lovers. |
 | | Jordin Sparks may have been the youngest American Idol when she won the title on the reality show's sixth season, but the Glendale, AZ, resident had already packed plenty of accomplishments into 17 years. |
 | | Dubbed "the First Lady of Crunk & B" by the producer who should know, Lil Jon, singer Ciara burst onto the scene with the never-gonna-get-it single "Goodies," the breathy "answer song" to Petey Pablo's "Freek-a-Leek. |
 | | Georgia-born singer/songwriter Jordan Pruitt began her singing career at the age of four, harmonizing with her father's group in church. |
 | | Pop singer and actor Jesse McCartney was a child performer dynamo, singing on Broadway and landing an acting gig on All My Children before even joining his first boy band, a feat that came at the age of 12. |
 | | In November 2005, Chris Brown’s Scott Storch-produced “Run It!” -- a rewrite of Usher’s “Yeah!” -- topped the Billboard Hot 100, making the 16-year-old singer the first male artist in over a decade to top the chart with a debut single. |
 | | Actress/vocalist Demi Lovato began making a name for herself after starring alongside the Jonas Brothers in the 2008 Disney Channel movie Camp Rock. |
 | | The younger sibling of former child actor Haley Joel Osment, actress/vocalist Emily Osment launched her career at a young age, having landed a role in the 1999 film The Secret Life of Girls when she was only seven years old. |
 | | Before releasing her debut album in 2009, Selena Gomez began her career as a child actress. Born in 1992, she grew up in Texas and got her first break as a cast member on the kids TV show Barney and Friends. |
 | | Like Martika, Jennifer Love Hewitt, and Rahsaan Patterson, Stacy "Fergie" Ferguson got her first major break as a youngster on the television program Kids Incorporated. |
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 | | A leader in the parade of Mickey Mouse Club veterans who stormed pop at the turn of the millennium, Christina Aguilera was the sexy, brassy diva of the bunch -- the Rolling Stones to Britney Spears’ Beatles, as it were. |
 | | Growing up on the outskirts of Boston, MA, JoJo listened and learned as her mother practiced hymns. She started singing by imitating her mother, but quickly put her own spin on everything from nursery rhymes to pop tunes. |
 | | R&B singer Cassie got her first taste of the music industry at 16 when she had the opportunity to speak with the producer Rockwilder, a meeting that inspired her to take formal voice lessons. |
 | | Cuban-American Christina Milian was born in New Jersey but raised in Maryland, making her debut as an actress at a very young age while playing a role in a children-oriented musical, working as junior journalist for The Walt Disney Company, and making guest appearances on Sister Sister and Clueless, among other popular TV shows. |
 | | Destiny's Child rose to become one of the most popular female R&B groups of the late '90s, eventually rivaling even TLC in terms of blockbuster commercial success. |
 | | Pop singer Justin Bieber was barely into his teens when he released his platinum-selling debut, My World, and became one of 2009's youngest success stories. |
 | | Originally from New Zealand, Natasha Bedingfield grew up in southeast London, where she and her siblings were raised around music. |
 | | Teenage actress Miranda Cosgrove launched her music career in 2007, when she scored a hit with the theme song to her own TV show. |
 | | Teen performer China McClain is known for her work on family comedy Tyler Perry's House of Payne and Disney Channel series A. |
 | | Actor and pop-R&B vocalist Jacob Latimore got his first taste of fame at a very young age, when his first single, the 2006 release "Best Friend," was played on Radio Disney. |
 | | More than any other single artist, Britney Spears was the driving force behind the return of teen pop in the late '90s. |
 | | The third group to be put together through the reality television series Making the Band -- O-Town being the first, Da Band being the second -- Danity Kane's membership includes five women who beat out hundreds of hopefuls. |
 | | The best-selling female performer of the 1990s, Mariah Carey rose to superstardom on the strength of her stunning five-octave voice. |
 | | Justin Timberlake may be the quintessential pop star of the new millennium, a star who jumped from platform to platform on his way to establishing himself as something bigger than a star: he was a self-sustained empire. |
 | | Founded by choreographer Robin Antin in 1995, the Pussycat Dolls began as a burlesque dance revue based in Los Angeles, spawned a second revue in Las Vegas, grew into an A-list phenomena with a revolving cast of guest celebrities, and eventually became a recording act with a number one dance hit. |
 | | A self-proclaimed product of his past, rapper Sean Kingston's history helps describe his sound. Born in Miami, FL, then raised in Kingston, Jamaica, from the age of six, he mixed more than a little dancehall and reggae into his hip-hop. |
 | | Atlanta-based pop-R&B trio OMG Girlz were developed by Tameka "Tiny" Cottle (former member of Xscape, one of the most successful R&B acts of the '90s) and her business partner, Keisha Miles. |
 | | The daughter of Will Smith and Jada Pinkett-Smith, Willow Smith -- like older brothers Jaden and Trey -- got her start in the entertainment industry as an actor. |
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 | | Teen heartthrob Mitchel Musso began his career as an actor, playing Oliver "Smoken" Oken on The Disney Channel's Hannah Montana before adding a music career to his résumé in 2009. |
 | | Although initially viewed as another face in the late-'90s crowd of teen pop acts, Pink (professionally known as P!nk) quickly transcended and outgrew that label with her combination of pop songcraft and powerhouse, rock-influenced vocals. |
 | | Put together by producers Vincent Herbert (Toni Braxton, Destiny’s Child, Lady Gaga) and Walter Millsap (Alicia Keys, Beyoncé), Mindless Behavior is a pop-R&B group featuring singers and dancers Princeton, Prodigy, Ray Ray, and Roc Royal. |
 | | Ne-Yo was one of the most successful songwriters and artists of the 2000s. His breakthrough didn't come until late 2004, as the co-songwriter of Mario's "Let Me Love You," a number one Hot 100 hit that Billboard later determined to be the eighth most successful single of the decade. |
 | | Actress/teen pop star Lindsay Lohan entered the world of show business at the tender age of three as a Ford model, which led to television commercials for the Gap, Pizza Hut, and Wendy's. |
 | | Before she could utilize her talents for her own solo endeavors, R&B singer, vocal arranger, and songwriter Keri Hilson wrote a slew of songs, many of them chart-toppers, for several popular artists in the mid-2000s as part of the five-person production/songwriting team known as the Clutch. |
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 | | One of Disney's most successful endeavors of the 2000s, the High School Musical franchise wasn't just one of the most-watched projects on the Disney Channel; it also launched nearly as many teen pop stars as The Mickey Mouse Club did in the '90s, when Christina Aguilera, Britney Spears, and Justin Timberlake were among the cast members. |