Breakout stars Kristin Cavallari and Lauren Conrad played tug-of-war with pretty boy Stephen Colletti's affections on MTV's 2004 “reality” series Laguna Beach. At 22 years old, Cavallari now steps into the heels left abandoned by Conrad as the new star of The Hills, MTV's even more glamorous and unrealistic Laguna spin-off, which kicks off its sixth season on September 29. The actress (who participated in the “Until There's a Cure” HIV-awareness campaign) is certainly no stranger to drama, but Cavallari called Advocate.com a few days before Tuesday's premiere to explain how her real world is actually much gentler and gay-friendlier than what MTV's cameras capture.

Advocate.com: I’ve been looking forward to our chat because you’re not one of those guarded, overly media-trained girls who give safe, boring answers in interviews. You rarely hold back and always tell it like it is.
Kristin Cavallari: I can’t really censor myself because it’s too exhausting for me. It’s way too difficult to be something that you’re not. This is who I am -- if you like it, great; if you don’t, fine. That’s how I go through life. When it comes to interviews, there are certain things in my personal life that I don’t talk about, but everything else I don’t really mind.

The promos for the new season of The Hills introduce you with the tagline “The bitch is back.” I knew they were going to portray you as a bitch, but they aren’t trying to be subtle about it, are they?
No, they really aren’t. I honestly think it’s funny. What’s interesting to me is that on Laguna Beach someone was trying to steal my boyfriend, but now I’m the bitch? It’s interesting how they’ve turned that around. But I think the reason people say I’m a bitch is because I’m very honest and I have a really strong personality, and that intimidates a lot of people. So it’s easy to just slap the “bitch” label on me.

The paparazzi and tabloid attention will likely only get more intense once The Hills heats up again. The way I see it, you can either make the most of the exposure, like "Speidi," or have a Britney-style breakdown. How are you handling it?

You can’t take it too seriously. You have to laugh about it and not stress about what people think or you will go crazy. First of all, I don’t even know how they come up with the shit that’s in the tabloids. No matter what you do, you can’t please everybody, and not everyone’s going to like you.