During its production, she also attended the Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising and interned for Teen Vogue and Kelly Cutrone's public relations firm People's Revolution.

"[5] Alongside eventual castmates Lo Bosworth, Kristin Cavallari, and Stephen Colletti, Conrad attended Laguna Beach High School.

In 2004, they starred in Laguna Beach: The Real Orange County, an MTV reality television series which documented their lives during high school.

[10] After graduating from high school in 2004, Conrad attended the Academy of Art University in San Francisco for one semester, where she met Heidi Montag.

[11] Conrad left the series after the second season,[12] during which period she moved back home and transferred to the Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising in Los Angeles, though she did not graduate with a degree.

[14] After moving to Los Angeles in 2005, the spin-off series The Hills was developed to chronicle the lives of Conrad, her housemate Montag, her neighbor Audrina Patridge and her colleague Whitney Port.

[20] Conrad briefly dated fellow castmate Brody Jenner, which she commented had been subject to "editing to drag it out" during the series.

[35] That October, Conrad and her friend Hannah Skvarla opened the online store The Little Market, which distributes handmade pieces from women of varying cultural backgrounds.

[36] In December 2013, Montag stated that she and Conrad have "talked a few times" since the series' conclusion, elaborating that "it's unfortunate things happened the way that it did, but we're both different people now, older and more mature.

[48] In April 2011, Conrad launched The Beauty Department with her hairstylist, Kristin Ess, and her makeup artist, Amy Nadine;[49] she later announced plans to expand the brand to include a line of cosmetics.

[66] She later made appearances on the syndicated game show Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, playing for her charity "m.powerment by mark"[67] and Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List,[68] and also served as a guest judge on the thirteenth cycle of America's Next Top Model.

Since appearing on Laguna Beach: The Real Orange County, Conrad has been recognized as being among the first individuals to benefit from the popularity of reality television in the early to mid-2000s.

In 2009, Thomas Rogers from Salon described her as "one of the dullest major characters in reality television history", but opined that her normalcy compared to her co-stars on The Hills made her "vaguely likable".

[71] An editor from People stated that Conrad "became a full-blown TV phenom" during its third season, which notably introduced the conflict with Montag and Pratt, in addition to controversy regarding scripting allegations.

[6] In 2013, Misty White Sidell from The Daily Beast noted that Conrad established a following based on her respectability instead of "bitch-slaps and drunken sex-capades", further commenting that her more relatable image made her an "anomaly" among television personalities.

[75] Jim Higgins from Milwaukee Journal Sentinel complimented her pursuit of several different career endeavors, and compared her to a "young Martha Stewart".

[78] However, in August 2012, Conrad was criticized for destroying a collection of A Series of Unfortunate Events novels for a crafting tutorial posted to YouTube.

[84][85] Conrad collaborated with Seventeen magazine to film a public service announcement for Declare Yourself, a campaign which encouraged young adults to register themselves to vote during the 2008 presidential election.

A source had said Conrad declined the offer because she felt she was in a different place in life with raising her son, Liam, and working on her line for Kohl's.

[89][90] Having begun dating in February 2012,[91] Conrad and Something Corporate guitarist William Tell moved into a shared residence in Westwood, Los Angeles in September 2013,[92] and announced their engagement the following month.