New York:

Nicole Richie, whose drastic weight loss spawned speculation that she has an eating disorder, acknowledges she is “too thin” and is getting treatment to add pounds, in an interview in Vanity Fair.

“I know I’m too thin right now, so I wouldn’t want any young girl looking at me and saying, `That’s what I want to look like,”’ the 24-year-old Simple Life reality TV star tells the magazine in its June issue.

“I do know that they will, which is another reason I really do need to do something about it,” she says. “I’m not happy with the way I look right now.”

The 5-foot-1-inch Richie was visibly heavier in 2003 when she began filming TV’s The Simple Life, which features Richie and ex-friend Paris Hilton thrown into normal jobs and responsibilities.

Richie, who has said she gained weight during a stint in rehab for heroin addiction, says she does not know how much she weighs today.

However, she says her eating habits are far from healthy: “I eat the worst foods — salty cheese-and-grease kind of stuff.” Stress causes her to lose her appetite, she says, and her split in December from ex-fiance Adam Goldstein, a professional club DJ who goes by the name DJ AM, did not help matters. “I had a bad breakup, and it eats me up inside when I’m upset about something,” says Richie, who is dating Goldstein again.

“I get really stressed out, and I do lose my appetite, but I do force myself to eat. I tried to put the weight on my way, eating burritos, but that wasn’t working, so I started seeing a nutritionist and a doctor,” Richie tells the magazine.