Lauren Alaina is a regular 18-year-old high school senior, who spends time with friends, is ready to graduate and dates on the weekends. However, her less than ordinary "after school job" has already started to affect her social life.

"It's hard, when you're in this business, to find people who accept this life," Lauren tells The Boot. "Our schedules make it so we're always gone working, and then when we're home, our family, everyone, wants to see us. Finding the right person who can be faithful and be good to you while you're gone and understand what's going on is hard to find."

That said, she adds, "My boyfriend is really great. I've been pretty lucky with this new guy."

While she declines to share his name -- explaining, "my boyfriend doesn't really like attention" -- Lauren is more than happy to gush over her beau, describing him as, "the one thing that's still normal in my life. He's a senior in high school, he's a normal guy, he's very respectful to adults and he stays out of trouble. My best friend and I were talking about him and she was like, 'I want someone just like him.'"

It was that conversation that sparked a tweet from the "American Idol" runner up, urging girls to find "good guys" over "bad boys." "I tweeted all the little girls and said, 'You need to find the boyfriend that your friends are jealous of. Like that your friends want to find,'" she explains. "I feel like girls these days don't find what they deserve, they just find the first thing that comes to them. That's sad. There's always going to be someone out there who respects girls, and who won't make them do things they don't want to do, and talk back to them. I think that's important, so I always try to remind young girls that they deserve the best. They shouldn't find someone that's going to treat them like crap. They need to find someone who really respects them for who they are."

That's a lesson the Georgia native says she learned after a less than stellar dating experience. "I had a terrible boyfriend last year," she reveals. "Absolutely terrible. Treated me like dirt. I mean, I was 17 years old, I never really had a real boyfriend, someone I went out on dates with. When I tried out for 'Idol,' I was 16, and I was gone for a year and a half. When I got home, he was the first real boyfriend that I went out with and cared about. He was not right for me. Everyone tells me I didn't listen."

Luckily, Lauren wised up and found her new guy. She's in the studio now, working on her sophomore album, as well as writing tunes, a few of which are inspired by her gentlemanly beau.

Watch Lauren Perform in Our Studio

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