US Weekly finally put out a cover that doesn’t have anything to do with the Gosselins. Thank God. But I’m not sure this week’s story is any better. It’s an “exclusive” interview with Stephanie Pratt (sister of professional douchenozzle Spencer Pratt), who claims that “The Hills” made her bulimic. Correction – Stephanie is not claiming that anyone who works behind-the-scenes on “The Hills” told her to lose weight, or to lose weight in an unhealthy way. Stephanie is saying that she began to binge and purge after seeing how skinny the other Hills girls were.

The sub-headings of the cover story are: The Agony of Working With ‘Skinny Girls’; 5,000 Calorie-a-Day Binging; and How She Tried To Kill Herself. The interview excerpt doesn’t say that much about all of that, though. It’s basically about how Lauren Conrad and Audrina Patridge are very skinny (which is true, although LC has a “healthy skinny” look) and Stephanie felt “big” in comparison to them:

Hills star Stephanie Pratt opens up for the first time in the new issue of Us Weekly about hating her body and her terrifying secret struggle with bulimia — sparked, she says, by the pressure of appearing alongside her super-thin friends on the hit MTV reality show.

The 5-foot-7 23-year-old reveals she began bingeing and purging after watching a scene she shot with Lauren Conrad in 2007 after first joining the cast: “I was horrified. I remember saying, ‘I can’t believe how huge I look walking over to Lauren.'”

Another time, when filming in Hawaii in bikinis, the size 0-2 Pratt –- in a bikini and cover-up — asked costar Audrina Patridge, “What looks better, ‘shirt on or off?'” Patridge said ‘On.'” Says Pratt, “The producers never put pressure on us to lose weight,” but adds, “It’s embarrassing working with skinny girls.”

[From US Weekly]

It really seems like Stephanie was possibly “encouraged” to develop an eating disorder because she already had body-image issues that were heightened when she began “working” with Lauren Conrad and Audrina Patridge. I’m not trying to criticize Stephanie or make light of her eating disorder, but if the objective of this cover is to come clean, shouldn’t Stephanie also acknowledge her own responsibility for her psychological issues and her own culpability with binging and purging, and not just participate in a cover that entirely blames “The Hills”?

Here’s Stephanie at the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation 20th Annual ‘A Time For Heroes’ Celebrity Carnival in Los Angeles on June 7th. Images thanks to WENN.com .