“RHOSLC”'s Whitney Rose Says She Wants to 'Stand Out': 'If That Makes Me a Villain, Then I Guess I'm a Villain' (Exclusive)

"I'm not backing down because for the first time in my life, I can say I love who I am," Whitney Rose tells PEOPLE

Whitney Rose is embracing whatever comes at her.

The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City star, 38, recently sat down with PEOPLE to discuss season 5 of the hit Bravo show. So far, Whitney has been a central figure in the drama, and she says that’s because she has finally found her voice and the confidence to stand up for herself.

“It was a lot of years of getting burned and screwed over by people,” she reflects. “It's really hard for me to put myself first because I always hate confrontation. I hate making people upset. Despite however I'm viewed on the show, I do not like making people upset. I can hold my own. I can stand up for myself and I advocate for a lot of people a lot of the time, but I never advocate for myself.”

“When people see that change, they don't know what do,” she adds. “Then I do it with confidence now. I'm not backing down because for the first time in my life, I can say I love who I am and I'm not ever going to take that away from myself.”

Related: RHOSLC: Lisa Barlow Throws a Glass and Accuses Whitney Rose of Being a 'Liar': 'I’ll Be Your Villain'

Although she admits “I don’t view myself as the villain this season,” Whitney doesn’t care if she is labeled as one. She says with her newfound empowerment, she expected people to change their opinions of her.

“I guess if we're going to lean into the villain thing, I think it's only because we want to stand out,” she says. “[I] don't want to be like everyone else. If that makes me a villain, then I guess I'm a villain.”

Related: Lisa Barlow Teases Upcoming RHOSLC Season as 'Most Iconic Ever': 'We're Going to Blow Everyone Away' (Exclusive)

This season has brought a feud between Whitney and Lisa Barlow after Whitney heard that Lisa was spreading rumors about her jewelry line’s validity to social media gossip accounts — a claim that Lisa has denied. A recent episode even showed the conflict spill over onto their husbands, who nearly got in a physical altercation after Lisa called Whitney “a liar."

“It's sad, to me, to see her, how vicious she has been and her nonstop need to slander me and talk ill about me and my husband,” Whitney says. “I think it says more about her than it does about me. But it makes me feel sad for her. I don't understand why she feels like she needs to do that. It's not a good look, and it doesn't affect me either way. I'm kind of used to it now, but she has taken it to an entirely new level on the show and on social media. It's really gross.”

“I've tried many times to repair the relationship with her throughout the years,” she alleges. “And especially after this, I even told her, I said, ‘I asked if you did it. I didn't accuse you. I asked.’ My experience with her is she's incapable of listening. I've never seen her take accountability for anything because she just has to be right. She's calling me a liar, but can't prove what I'm lying about.”

Whitney says she thinks Lisa attacks her “feelings,” but “you can’t lie about your feelings.”

Now that she has learned to prioritize herself, Whitney shares that it isn’t a priority for her to repair their friendship anymore.

“I realized that people pleasing is self-sabotage,” she explains. “Every single season, [Lisa] has a falling out with a friend. The people who get back in with her, it's almost like she just exhausted you back into it. It's easier to just be like, ‘You know what? You're right.’”

“I'm just no longer willing to sacrifice myself for a relationship that is one-sided to begin with,” she says of Lisa, who threatened to sue Whitney over the claims on a recent episode of RHOSLC. "I hope that she takes a hard look at all her friendships like I did, [and sees] that everyone is telling her the same thing. It happens multiple times this season. So at that point in time, you've got to quote Taylor Swift: ‘Hi, it's me. I'm the problem.’ But not everyone cares to work on themselves like that."

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The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City airs Wednesdays at 9 p.m. ET on Bravo.