Everywhere you look, sisters are doing it for themselves -- little sisters, that is.

Being the younger sib of a celeb has certainly paid off for Jamie Lynn Spears and Solange Knowles, and the latest to benefit from her family's name recognition is Ashlee Simpson, sister of Jessica, who's branching off from the family tree with her own album and reality show.

"The Ashlee Simpson Show," however, is not necessarily a spinoff of "Newlyweds" (though it'll air right after "Newlyweds" when it premieres on June 16 at 10:30 p.m. ET). Where "Newlyweds" plays like a sitcom because of Jessica's ditzy persona, the six-episode "Ashlee" series promises to be more of a teen drama, following the younger sister on her path to becoming a music star as she signs with a record label and starts recording her debut album, Autobiography, due July 20.

"I started making my album about seven months ago," Simpson said, "and I was just signing to the label when my dad [Joe Simpson, executive producer of 'Newlyweds'] was like, 'How would you like to do a reality show?' And I was like, 'Hell, no!' And the reason I said that was my sister had her show and everything. But then he said, 'What if it were about the making of the album?' And I said, 'All right, that's more like it.' "

Simpson said that she's always resisted doing things if it looks like she's just imitating her more famous sibling. But then she decided that she couldn't plan her life around what Jessica had or hadn't done.

"When I was younger, because my sister was a singer, I was not a singer," she said. "But I loved singing, so I was like, 'Why am I not doing this for myself?' I can't not do a record just because my sister has a record. I knew there was going to be a lot of flack for that, people are going to say, 'Oh my gosh, you're trying to be like your sister.' But I'm like, 'No, dude, a lot of people like music.' "

On her debut album, Ashlee tries to capture what it's like to be on the verge of adulthood. For instance, her breakup with Josh, her boyfriend of two years, becomes the focus of the first episode as she tries to transform her hurt feelings into song. She worked on that particular song, "Unreachable," with Sugar Ray drummer Stan Frazier and producer Steve Fox (see [article id="1479980"]"Ashlee Simpson Cuts LP And Tries Reality TV, But She's No Jessica Clone"[/article]).

"I got my heart broken for the first time, and while the cameras weren't there for the actual moment, they were there for the results," Simpson said. "Whenever I'm hurt, it's so much easier to let it out and write about it from a tough perspective, 'Move over,' like you're stepping on them back. It's not a big deal now, but I felt like it at that point. Now it's more of a reflection, a memory stored away, and now I love to date around and not be too serious, just be 19 and have fun."

Another one of her songs, "Shadow," tries to capture what it's like to grow up in someone else's limelight, which she now credits as helping to form her identity. Before she realized she wanted to be a singer, Ashlee started off trying to be a dancer and joined Jessica's tours in that capacity. Later she decided she wanted to be an actress and left the tour to audition for the WB's "7th Heaven" (on which she plays Cecilia). This, she said, was a milestone for her, because she did it on her own, and after having accomplished that, she didn't quite feel the same need to distance herself from Jessica. That's why, she said, her recent switch from blonde to brunette is no Nicky Hilton or Mary-Kate Olsen move.

"I had just finished '7th Heaven,' and I'd had the same haircut forever for the show, so the day it finished, I took a Clairol bottle and just kind of poured it all over my head," she said. "I had bottle-blonde hair, so I hoped it didn't turn green. And it didn't! And now I love it. I thought my parents were going to freak out, so I called my mom, and I was like, 'I did something,' and she was like, 'Did you get a tattoo?' And I was like, 'Maybe!' I thought they were going to hate it, but they love it, and now I'm keeping it."

Because of the way their parents raised the two of them, Ashlee said, the Simpson sisters are exactly the way they appear to be on their respective reality shows -- "free and open," with each other, with their parents, with everyone else in their lives, and soon for Ashlee, with the world watching.

"We tell our parents everything, which I know is so odd, who does that? But we do," Ashlee said. "The one thing Jessica has really done for me is that she shows me that you don't have to be something else. You just be yourself. People really do want to see you be real."

For a look at the ups and downs of life as a reality TV star, check out the feature [article id="1487953"]"Surviving Reality Television."[/article]