Lindsay Lohan appears on the cover of edgy style magazine Paper

A week after posing in a nude photo spread as Marilyn Monroe, Hollywood starlet Lindsay Lohan remains in seductress mode.

The actress, sporting blonde locks and a slender frame, stars in a sultry new shoot for edgy style magazine Paper, where she defends her hard-partying, law-infringing, rehab-hopping past, declaring: "I am what I am."

The 21-year-old puts her troubled year down to her family woes – and the bright lights of Hollywood.

Lindsay goes blonde and loses a few pounds in sultry shoot

She told the publication: "I had a lot going on in my life and that was a way of hiding from it.

"I hadn't seen my dad; I had a lot of work stress 'cause I was constantly working and never took time to stop."

"Everything was go-go-go, and the easiest thing was to run away from it, going out and drinking at night."
Step ahead: Lindsay says she's now focused on getting her flailing career back on track

She adds, "But I didn't realize it was getting in the way of my work – what I've worked for my whole life."

But her multiple stints in rehab has changed all of that, she insists.

"There's not really much else to do when you're sitting in a treatment center. It's like, 'Why am I here? Let's think.' "
Girl at work: Lindsay redefines the term 'getting hammered' in the photo shoot

Now, after a series of unsuccessful big screen releases including Georgia Rule and I Know Who Killed Me, she's focused on getting her career back on track.

She says: "Right now I just want to find a great script, a great role."

"I was so used to working and working and working, and for a good few months there was nothing for me to do. Now I know what it's like to be an out-of-work actor, and how much it scares me."
Leggy: Lindsay heads to LA restaurant Foxtail after attending traffic school in Hollywood yesterday