“I got a tattoo on my lower back that says ‘sticks and stones,’ because they may break my bones, but words will never hurt me. Once I let go of that, I felt more confident about myself. And that… made my decision to leave ‘The Hills’ pretty easy…” Lauren Conrad, Shape Magazine, September 2009

Life after The Hills has been good to Lauren, who has become a successful author — with her first novel, L.A. Candy hitting The New York Times Bestsellers List — and designed a line for Kohl’s since leaving her MTV reality show in May.