Lauren Conrad Is So Ready For Motherhood

Few celebrities feel more deeply millennial than Lauren Conrad. In 2004, Conrad started her career in the spotlight for being a teen with friends who had a penchant for drama and continued her young adult life in front of the camera on The Hills, eventually leaving to pursue entrepreneurship and grow multiple fashion brands. Her fans have grown up with her, and as they get older and start families, Conrad was right beside them, doing the same. And now, she is dressing moms-to-be in her LC Lauren Conrad Maternity Collection, as she herself is expecting her first child.

"I wanted to maintain the style that I always had," Conrad tells me when we talk on the phone. Her style has earned her millions of Instagram follows, websites with an aesthetic many emulate, and two successful clothing brands, Paper Crown, and LC Lauren Conrad, the latter exclusively at Kohl's. "I wanted to dress and feel like myself ... I feel like nothing about pregnancy lets your feel like yourself, because everything is constantly changing." Conrad jokes that as soon as she felt comfortable revealing her pregnancy, she was asking the design team how quickly could they make this collection, noting, "I was able to find a few pieces [elsewhere], but it was very limited."

Conrad's own maternity style didn't go as she planned, which allowed her to truly create a line that feels like her. When she first started wearing maternity wear, Conrad thought she would wear looser shift styles, "just to feel comfortable," she says. Not loving how they made her body look, she sought to create looks that allowed pregnant women to show off their shape. "I think that a pregnant woman's body is very beautiful, and it's not something that everybody wants to cover up," Conrad says. "I wanted to do pieces that would make you feel good about your new shape."

Speaking of her new shape, Conrad says that comfort was key when dressing her pregnant body. "There were a couple of pieces I bought that I'd wear for a couple hours and then I'd just ditch them... I just donated them, they were so uncomfortable." Staying true to "there's no point in looking nice if you don't feel good," Conrad has created a collection of pieces she hopes women feel good in, while staying consistent with the brand she has already built.

Many may find themselves thinking about the obvious next step in Conrad's career — a baby line. And you're not alone, even Conrad is thinking about it already. "I would love to do kids' clothes," she says, noting "everything is cuter tiny." But she has one important stipulation before designing baby clothes. "I think I need to have a little more experience shopping for and dressing a baby and a toddler," she says. "I couldn't do maternity clothes until I actually needed to wear maternity clothes," so the same mindset — to do it, she first has to live it — goes for kids' clothes, too.

From the sound of our conversation, Conrad knows that entrepreneurship plus a baby will present some challenges, but she's game for this next chapter of her life. People love to ask pregnant women whether they're going to keep working once they have children (as though most women have a choice), but Conrad isn't concerned. "People said the same thing to me when I was getting married," she says. "'You have to make sure you have time for your partner,'" some would say. "I actually found that I'm able to do more with having a supportive partner in my life." And while Conrad acknowledges that having a child is different from getting married, she still maintains that it's not a worry. "I think having a kid can inspire you to do more... I'm not planning to slow down."