Lauren Conrad: 'people don't take me seriously'

Lauren Conrad thinks people don't take her seriously.

"I'm sure a lot of people don't take me seriously," The Hills star, 22, tells the Wall Street Journal.

However, in a bid to be taken more seriously, Conrad -- with the help of her father -- has hired a team of Hollywood-industry advisers and signed several licensing and endorsement deals since shooting to fame in the hit MTV show.

But, because the cameras never follow her when she works on her collection, Lauren's enterprises aren't getting any free promotion on The Hills.

"I spend the most amount of time on the line, and it's the thing that makes me the least amount of money," Conrad explains.

Conrad is also quite clearly desperate to be in the spotlight.

The Journal reporter says Lauren chose to dine outside a restaurant because she'd be in better view of paparazzi

"During a recent breakfast interview at an outdoor café in Los Angeles, Ms. Conrad said she suspected a photographer was taking pictures of her from across the street," writes Katherine Rosman. "She declined to move to an inside table. Instead, she looked left and right before taking quick bites of her egg whites."

Meanwhile, Conrad hit out at a recent magazine headline -- presumably Us Weekly's latest cover story -- claiming the publication had turned her spread "into yet another 'poor me' story".

On her MySpace blog -- referring to the cover, which reads "Betrayed by Brody and Audrina" -- she said: "I just wanted to take a moment to clear something up.

"I recently did an interview to talk about the show coming back on and what everyone had to look forward to.

"Unfortunately it was turned into yet another 'poor me' story.

"The article itself is a nice one but it follows headlines that, in no way, represent my words or feelings. I do not feel betrayed by Audrina or Brody.

"I love them both and said nothing to contradict this.

"I understand that headlines sell magazines, but I value my friendships above magazine sales any day.

However, Lauren later issued a statement, stating, "It was never my intention to criticize Us Weekly as I have a great relationship with them."