Her TV experiences this year, first as one of the semifinalists on The Bachelor, now as the rose-dispenser on the seventh season of The Bachelorette, have taken a toll on the small-town girl from northernmost Maine.
"On the show you'll see me trusting everybody," she says. "That's always been my default position. Now I feel like I'm jaded. I think I've learned a lot about people, but it's kind of a sad thing."
It's an intensely muggy morning in Philadelphia as Hebert sits outside a cafe across from the Penn campus. She has changed her hair to a far darker tint than the honeyed auburn you see on TV.
Every few minutes, a passerby will do a double take, then whip out a cellphone and begin excitedly texting friends. ("You're not going to believe who I'm looking at.")
When you're America's Wounded Sweetheart, it's hard to fly under the radar.
The season, which finished taping two months ago, now seems headed for a satisfying climax. On Monday's episode, Hebert will travel for dates in the hometowns of the four remaining suitors. In the case of Ames, a native of Chadds Ford, that means a carriage ride along the Brandywine.
But Hebert's image still hasn't quite recovered from the show's turbulent start. There was her blind devotion to Bentley, an utter cad who was callously toying with her emotions just to get camera time.
Then there was the disastrous episode in which the men were asked to "roast" Ashley at a comedy club.
That resulted in nasty insult jokes like "You're actually the first girl I've ever dated with a smaller chest than me" and "I thought I was signing up to be with Emily or Chantal, and then Ashley is here."
Hebert's emotional responses to those public humiliations made her an Internet dartboard, a blog bog.
