Simpson was the youngest person ever admitted to the School of American Ballet at age 11. After her sister Jessica achieved success in pop music in 1999, Ashlee became a dancer in her sister's concerts. She later played the character Cecilia on the television show 7th Heaven from 2002 until the beginning of her singing career in 2004, at which point she said that she would no longer regularly play the role.
Simpson recorded a song, 'Just Let Me Cry', for the soundtrack to the 2003 movie Freaky Friday. Her first album, Autobiography, was released on July 20, 2004. It debuted at number one in its first week, selling over 398,000 copies, and remained at number one for three of the first four weeks following its release. Her first single from the album, 'Pieces of Me', was written about her then-boyfriend, Ryan Cabrera. Her second single is 'Shadow', which is about living in the shadow of her sister's accomplishments
Ashlee has a somewhat different, more rock-oriented image than that of her sister. Previously blonde like Jessica, she dyed her hair dark during the recording of the reality show, after she had finished filming for 7th Heaven (although she has said that the change of hair color was not intended to separate herself from Jessica), and her songs have rock elements absent from her sister's music.
In 2003, Geffen Records signed her to a music deal and Ashlee began working on her first album immediately. Because Jessica was having so much success with her show Newlyweds, Ashlee decided to go the reality TV route as well. Her series, called The Ashlee Simpson Show, premiered in June of 2004 on MTV and documented the entire process of making an album - from writing the songs to recording them. When the album (called Autobiography) was finally released in July 2004, it went straight to number one - a feat that big sister Jessica Simpson has never been able to accomplish alot of things. I am going out with her!!!!

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