Create & Cultivate 100: Content Creator: Whitney Port
Whitney Port needs no introduction.
The fashion designer, TV personality, and author has spent the last decade on the main stage, fielding everything from her starring role on The City and her namesake blog to her fashion line and the upcoming relaunch of Bundle Organics, a line of juice and teas for new and expecting moms. All while parenting her toddler son. Are you exhausted just reading that?
Now, with the upcoming premiere of The Hills reboot, we’ll get to see her life unfold on-screen. Below, she talks about why she’s excited for the reboot, how she juggles her many ventures, and what she’s excited for in 2019.
We’ve loved followed along with you as your career has changed and grown over the years. What are you most excited to be working on right now?
Wow! So many things! I actually just wrapped filming THE HILLS: New Beginnings, which was such a trip! It’s crazy to think about how so much has changed since I first started filming the show. I’m so excited for everyone to experience our lives through a more adult lens and for the audience to experience the complexities of our adult lives instead of the simplicity of what our 20s entailed. I mean, at 25 I thought my life was so complicated and intense but it is NOTHING compared to what it is now.
I’m also super excited for the launch of Bundle Organics. Bundle has been my baby for 2 years now. Our mission is to help expecting and new moms be more healthy, active, and comfortable and to better nourish their little ones from the very beginning. We’re striving to build a community and inspire a larger movement dedicated to the health and wellness of women during this special transition in their lives. Bundle Organics is the first line of organic prenatal snacks and beverages, pasteurized and specially designed to meet the nutritional needs of women that are trying to get pregnant, expecting, and new moms. Our teas, juices, smoothies, granola bars and granola bites are designed with nutrients and vitamins to maintain a healthy pregnancy for mom and help support baby’s healthy development, as well as providing breastfeeding moms a boost of nutrients they need. For more information and to buy products visit bundleorganics.com and buybuybaby.com.
You started a YouTube series called “I Love My Baby, But…” after having your son. What value do you think there is in sharing “the hard stuff” with your followers?
The value is the support and feedback I get from my followers. Knowing I am not the only one who has these issues or feels this way not only helps me feel sane and ok, but also allows my followers to not feel so alone. I strive to create a nurturing and open community where no feeling one has is wrong.
What about your job makes you feel the most fulfilled?
I feel most fulfilled when I feel like the work I have done has solved some sort of problem. Whether it's keeping a pregnant woman satisfied with the snacks we make or tackling issues like mom-guilt or mom-shaming. I strive to show how I work through problems, and I think that empowers anyone that reads or buys what I make to work through their own.
What advice would you give to women who are just starting out where you did, stressing over coveted internships and opportunities in the industry?
It’s scary! Times have moved away from gradually working your way up somewhere. It’s more about paving your own way and figuring it out for yourself. Do not rely on a degree or a connection, just hustle as hard as you can and don’t let anyone tell you the idea you have isn’t worth while. However, create a backup plan/more traditional way to make money while you are trying to pave your way. Also, try as little as possible to say no to things. Saying yes opens you up to so many more opportunities to meet people. Do random things and eventually you might land in a place you never thought you’d be in but feels so right.
Can women really “have it all?” Is that a myth?
I don’t think anyone can really have it all without a good amount of financial freedom. The world unfortunately just isn’t set up that way. You can’t get 8 hours of sleep, work a 10 day hour, have two hours of free time, volunteer, work out, cook dinner for you family, etc. every day. There’s just not enough hours in the day. The trick is to identify the few things that are the most important to you (and these may change day to day) and plan your life so you get to do those things as much as possible.
If you could entirely switch careers for a year, what would you choose?
I would want to be a painter, but only if I were really good at it. I know being “good at it” is subjective, but you know what I mean. The thought of just sitting in a studio and doing art sounds so relaxing and nourishing.
I strive to show how I work through problems, and I think that empowers anyone that reads or buys what I make to work through their own.
What has been your biggest opportunity or biggest challenge?
My biggest challenge was dealing with the clean up of my clothing line, Whitney Eve, when my dad passed away. I started my clothing line with him in 2008. He had a lot of experience within the business of fashion, and I knew he would always steer me in the right direction. After he passed away, my sister, brother and I tried to make it work, but we just couldn’t. It was so hard, because it wasn’t only just closing a business and shutting down a passion, but it felt like I was letting my father down. About a year after we closed our doors, I got more perspective and realized it was also one of the best things career-wise I had ever done. The burden of this responsibility to make him proud was too large for me to bear, and I was able to have more career freedom once I let that go. It kind of just goes to show, as cliche as this sounds, when one door closes, another one really does open.
You’re going to be on The Hills reboot this year! What are you most looking forward to about the show? Are you nervous to see it premiere?
Ahhhhhhhhh! I am so excited! I’m just excited to be out there again! I’m excited that it will shed more light on what it is like to be a new mom and continue to expose what I have been up to.
I’m a little nervous just because I’m getting old and I am nervous for how I am going to look! I know that sounds shallow but it’s true!
When you hit a bump or hurdle in your career, how do you find new roads + switch gears to find success?
I take time away from the situation and sleep on it for a couple days. I really think there is nothing that some time and some good conversation can’t fix. Choose a couple people in your lives whose opinions may vary and talk to them about these things. Get their opinions, think about them, sleep on them and then form your own solution.
What are you most excited for in 2019?
For the first time in a long time, I feel like I have such a great foundation from which to take my career in whatever direction I want. I truly feel like the world is my oyster and there’s nothing I can’t at least try. None of it may be successful, but I feel confident about my possibilities.
I am also just so excited to keep getting to know Sonny and form a more meaningful relationship with him. I know that sounds silly. Tonight, while giving him a bath, we were looking at each other in the eyes as I sang Norah Jones, and I felt this connection that never would have happened 6 months ago. So, I am just excited for him to grow and want to nurture him through all of it. My goal is to give him the most amount of possibility to be the happiest he can be.
Photography by Annie McElwain Photography
Photoshoot skincare provided by Dermalogica