Jessica Simpson learns 'Price of Beauty'

PASADENA, Calif. — Jessica Simpson's new reality series, "The Price of Beauty," almost made her sick.

"Going to Paris, I had to walk a runway with all of these tall, skinny models. And I almost puked, I was so nervous," Simpson said.

Paris was just one stop on a trip around the globe — India, Thailand, Japan, Uganda, Morocco and Brazil. Simpson and her friends CaCee Cobb and celebrity stylist Ken Paves learn about what's considered beautiful and what women will do to make themselves beautiful.

And it wasn't all Paris runways. In Uganda, the women are fattened up just to be presentable.

"The men told CaCee and I that we would have to be in a fattening hut for three months for them to even consider marrying us," Simpson said.

"The Price of Beauty" (Monday, 11 p.m., VH1) is filled with lighter moments. But it's not lightweight like Simpson's last reality show — "Newlyweds."

Not only are there some serious issues, but it's tied to her work with Operation Smile, which offers facial reconstruction surgery to children with deformities.

"I think going all around the world and seeing all of these incredibly courageous women, it really inspired all of us to find the best within ourselves," she said. "And I feel like I walk around with so much more pride in who I am as a woman, as a person."

Simpson has certainly suffered more than her share of unfair criticism — including a spate of "fat" stories when she "ballooned" up to a size 6. And she decried "the pressures that are put on women today" to be ultra-thin.

The show "changed me completely because I haven't always had an inner confidence, and I haven't always looked at my reflection and loved it. There's always something that I've wanted to fix because there's always somebody that looks better. ... So I think the journey really was finding what was beautiful inside of me."

Even on the Paris runway.

"I was so nervous to walk out there and be judged — to just put myself out there like that," Simpson said. "Especially standing next to people that eat just salad."

e-mail: pierce@desnews.com