By Frances Vega
Reality star and fashion designer, Whitney Port, appeared at USC Tuesday to talk with students about her new book, “True Whit.”
Port, who appeared on "The Hills" and starred on her own spinoff, "The City," has kept herself busy over the last few months. She’s working hard on her clothing line, doing charity work for an organization called FACE Africa, has a new book out, and for one night she added motivational speaker to the list.
The two-hour long event included a lecture, Q&A, and book signing.
Prior to the lecture, Port tweeted about how she never expected to give a lecture at her alma mater, but from the way she carried her long, Amazonian-like figure, she looked ready to get down to business. She appeared in the large classroom wearing an elegant gray blouse and green slacks from her clothing line. Port stood tall behind a podium discussing her new career as a designer and why she decided to write a book. She said she wanted to put together a way to answer all the questions fans had been asking her online.

It seemed as though she truly enjoys answering her fan’s inquiries. The designer was supposed to be promoting her new book, but she spent the majority of the lecture giving advice and answering questions. Port, who graduated from USC in 2007, told fans she wanted to provide them with an educational experience and that they could ask her anything. No questions were off the table.
The majority of the questions were about fashion and Port’s career choices, but every once in a while, someone would throw her a curveball. One audience member asked how she deals with people she doesn’t get along with—like Olivia, her rival on The City.
“How’s Olivia? Have you talked to her lately?” the audience member said.
“You know someone actually just sent me a really horrible picture of her today,” Port said.

After the audience got a laugh from her response, Port went on to say that she doesn’t usually have to worry about running into people she doesn’t like and that she just tries to live her life.
When Port mentioned that she contemplated rushing a sorority when she was in college another fan asked, “Do you feel like not being in a sorority held you back socially?”
Her graceful response to that question was, “you can’t miss what you don’t know.”
Port also spent some time talking about how she got involved with reality television. She said being a TV star was never part of her life plan and that she was reluctant to be on TV, but a Teen Vogue internship seemed like a good opportunity so she decided to go for it. She also said she pretended not to know who Lauren Conrad was when they first met.
The stories she told revealved a very unique path to success, but Port always tried to find a way to make her experiences relatable. She said part of her goal was to give advice that would help her fans succeed as well. Her biggest lesson for everyone was to take chances and learn new things.
To emphasize her point, Port borrowed a quote from her mentor, Kelly Cutrone.
“You cannot be afraid of taking chances because if you don't take chances then you’ll always be average.”

By Rob Shuter
I had the pleasure of chatting with former 'The City' star Whitney Port about 'True Whit,' her fun, new advice book that is in stores now. However, we have some advice of our own to the young Miss Port: After an interview make sure you hang up the phone before expressing your true feeling towards your old 'Hills' co-star, Heidi Montag!
Tell me about the book.
Basically it's a lifestyle book for girls kind of going through that quarter-life crisis that is inevitable in all our lives where we all kind of move out of our houses and have to be on our own and become independent.
Did you screw up in any of those areas?
Of course! In all of them! In dating, choosing guys that weren't necessarily the best for me and job interviewing, not knowing everything I needed to know and not being as prepared as possible.
Not taking anything away from your success but you were very lucky to have a TV show to help you.
Right, of course I definitely had a great platform, they helped me with all the connections, definitely I'm the first one to admit that but I think still even before being on TV, I was working in fashion and worked my way up. Just from my experiences I could kind of see how you could do it without the cameras.
Do you ever get sick of the cameras?
Of course, yeah. I don't have the cameras around me right now, which is pretty refreshing. Yeah there were definitely times where I was like "I'm not in the mood for this today."
Did you actually want to be famous?
No, never I went to interview to be an intern at Teen Vogue and I found out MTV was going to be filming a show there and they wondered if I'd be interested in doing a casting tape so I kind of went along with it and I never knew it was going to turn into anything like this. I've just kind of been riding the wave I guess. It hasn't ever been like a goal of mine to be famous or to be on TV.
You were on 'The Hills' with Heidi Montag. Do you think it's sad what has happened to her?
Um (Publicist interrupts. 'Maybe we can stick a little bit more to the book.')
Sure. What else do you want to tell me about your book?
I think it's a really great guide and it shows me growing up from when I was like 5 to now. It's just a really fun book for girls who have all these questions.
When you go home are you like, 'I'm not clearing the table, I'm Whitney Port!'
Oh my gosh, no way could I get away with that. I know this sounds crazy but when I'm not in the realm of this job, this career, whether its press or filming or interviews I don't even think of myself in that light and my family would never allow me to either. I feel like I was raised in a really normal, loving family so I don't get caught up in all that stuff.
Thank you. Click. That's when things got really interesting. After the interview had finished we picked up the phone to make a call and Whitney Hadn't hung up properly. For a few seconds, okay minutes, we listened to Whitney express her true feelings about poor Heidi ... ouch!

By Stephan Lee
Whitney Port is a rare breed of reality star — more a listener than a talker, she tended to be the voice of reason on MTV’s The Hills and The City, the one her more dysfunctional co-stars would gravitate to in times of need. So it’s no surprise that Port has come out with True Whit, a how-to book of sorts about navigating your twenties, covering topics like work, style, dating, and food. We caught up with the blond TV star-turned-author in the middle of her book tour to find out more.
EW: We know you mostly for your TV shows and also as a fashion designer. How did the opportunity to write a book come about?
WP: It was kind of a natural progression. I was finding that I was getting lots of questions from girls all over the world about so many different things that they were going through. My mom says lots of girls my age are going through a “quarter life crisis,” where we’re not quite sure what we’re meant to be doing, and we’re under a lot of pressure to make decisions that will basically make or break our futures. I thought I’d write a fun book on how to alleviate those pressures and give a lifestyle guide based on my experiences and how I got to where I am today.
Your book is divided into different sections — decorating, style, exercise, health — almost like a magazine. Was there any section that was harder to write than the others?
The dating section was the hardest because it’s never easy to get that intimate about relationships. I can sit here all day long and chat about fashion and beauty and diet tips — all that sort of surface level stuff –but the boy-girl stuff is never easy. Or boy-boy or girl-girl. [Laughs].

It’s sort of surprising that you’re uncomfortable talking about your relationships when we got to see so much of them on TV. Is it different writing about love than it is to just invite the cameras into your life?
I don’t know if it’s harder to write about it, but now that I read my book I can’t believe I actually gave up that much information and named names. I really didn’t think about the publishing of the book while I was writing it, and I wasn’t really thinking about whether I was being disrespectful to certain people. I just wanted to be brutally honest — now, after the fact, I don’t know if I should have said so much.
You mention in the dating section that the producers of The City meddled in some of your relationships. Are you worried about MTV’s reaction?
[Laughs]. MTV is the least of my worries. They know what’s up. They were there, and they know what the experience was like. It’s no secret that [The City and The Hills] were not 100 percent true to reality. I’m not that concerned about it.

In the “Working Girl” section of your book, you make a few digs at your City costar Olivia Palermo. Have you thought about how she’ll react?
We don’t get along so great, and that’s not a secret either. I don’t think she’ll even care, to be honest.
You’re a TV star, fashion designer, and now a published author. Do you plan to expand your brand into an “empire”?
I definitely want to grow it, for sure. I want to take it one step at a time and not make any rash decisions. Right now, I’m focusing on my clothing line, Whitney Eve, because it’s by no means where I’d eventually like it to be. I’m working now on possibly taking my clothing line around the world. I may go back into TV if the time and project are right.
So how are things with Ben [Nemtin, from MTV’s The Buried Life]?
Great! Thanks for asking. Everything is wonderful. [Laughs]. Honestly, there’s nothing else I can say other than things are fine. That’s all I’d even tell my best friend. Honestly.

by Sara Glassman
On "The Hills," Whitney Port was introduced as a fashion closet-mate of Lauren Conrad at Teen Vogue's. When Port took her ambitions to New York on "The City," her own television and fashion industry career took off, first at Diane von Furstenberg, then at a public relations company and finally with her own line, Whitney Eve. In her new book, "True Whit," Port is letting the world in on her own story and offering advice for those who wish to follow in her high-heel footsteps. She called in from Los Angeles with a preview.
Q Describe your style.
A My personal style is pretty eclectic. In Los Angeles, it's different. If I'm just going into work [at Whitney Eve], I wear jeans, a T-shirt and some Converse.
Q Why a book?
A I decided to do it because I get so many questions from girls out there. It's for what my mom likes to call the quarter-life crisis, and we don't know where we fit in the world.
Q What five pieces does every girl need in her wardrobe now?
A A leather motorcycle jacket, a great pair of jeans, a pair of platform wedges, a nice yummy cashmere scarf that could travel throughout the season and a flirty tribal-print dress.
Q What's your all-time favorite outfit?
A I recently wore a baby blue vintage dress to a Cover Girl event. So chic and I just felt pretty.
Q Any outfits you're embarrassed about?
A There's a chapter in my book about that! It's inevitable. We go through so many different stages in life. There was an orange dress that stands out as a bad one. It was not becoming.
Q Do you have any shopping advice?
A Don't be afraid of vintage shopping. It's a really good way to save money. You are getting such great pieces at affordable prices and what you're wearing is never going to be seen on anyone else. A lot of fashion is really inspired by vintage and it's the forefront of fashion. You just have to be patient.

A leggy Whitney Port checks out her Manhattan hotel holding onto her Lena Erziak Paul bag and sporting red lipstick with a leather jacket. Port, is currently in NY promoting her first style book titled 'True Whit'.

Whitney Port was at Barnes & Noble Tribeca in New York City yesterday (February 1) to promote her debut novel True Whit.
Whit wore a colourful ensemble as she spent two hours meeting and greeting her many fans.
Whitney tweeted: "Wishing I had frozen spoons in my hotel room freezer! My eyes are so red and swollen but in a good way if that's possible haha. Thank you To everyone who has come out the past two nights! You are all the reason why I do this, you keep me going! A special thank you to all of You who have written me such sweet & kind cards! You bring tears to my eyes! I love you all. Off to sleep! New jersey, see you tomorrow!!!

Whitney's new book True Whit has finally hit store shelves, offering plenty of food for thought for the fashion-piqued and the celebrity-obsessed.
Celebuzz has been blessed with several excerpts directly from Whitney herself — on the day of its release! We’re sure after reading just the few tidbits here, you’ll want to snap up a copy for yourself.