The woman who created Carrie Bradshaw of Sex and the City is stepping out of ritzy Manhattan and into Champaign-Urbana Monday for a special presentation open to all University students.

Candace Bushnell will share personal anecdotes and promote her new book with students at Foellinger Auditorium Monday at 7 p.m. Directly afterwards in Foellinger, there will be a book signing for her new novel, Lipstick Jungle, starting at approximately 8:30 p.m.

The event, sponsored by the Panhellenic Council, is open to all students for no cost.

“This is our way of giving back to the campus community,” said Jen Anderson, senior in LAS and vice president of development for the Panhellenic council, who has been putting this event together since last May.

Panhellenic arranges speakers to come to campus as needed when they notice issues in sorority chapters that should be addressed, said Meredith Schaumburg, senior in LAS and president of the Panhellenic Council.

“Candace will cover themes like self-esteem, self-worth and finding yourself,” Scahuamburg said. “She’ll speak to all of us on that in-between stage of our lives that we’re in. And her speech will have more meaning past shoes and drinking – it will be stuff we can relate to.”

Anderson feels this speaker is especially relevant to University students because Bushnell empowers women to be independent and happy on their own. She emphasizes women becoming successful in their career and still being able to commit to a relationship.

“Today in college, girls aren’t coming for their M.R.S. (an expression for women who come to college solely to find a husband and become a “Mrs.”),” Anderson said. “They’re coming for their double degrees. Bushnell writes about how you can choose one track or the other – or both.”

Compared to previous Panhellenic speakers who have tackled student issues, Bushnell is the most widely known.

“We knew we wanted to bring a big speaker to campus,” Anderson said. “Candace Bushnell was perfect. She’s entertaining, she’s personal, and she’s someone huge.”

Bushnell started out with a column in the New York Observer where she wrote a personal account column called Sex and the City. She wrote of her dating experiences in the Big Apple under her alias name, Carrie.

“Sex and the City is such a big icon for university girls,” Anderson said. “They are all dating and in that stage of their lives. Candace has such a message. She’s gone through all that. She’s Carrie Bradshaw.”

Bushnell’s column was eventually turned into a book under the same title and later developed as a hit series on HBO starring Sarah Jessica Parker as Carrie Bradshaw. Bushnell has also written three other novels: Trading Up, Four Blondes, and her newly released novel, Lipstick Jungle.

The Illini Union Bookstore always keeps Bushnell’s novels in stock in the general book section.

“Bushnell has always been a good seller,” said Jennifer Stowe, coordinator for the Illini Union Bookstore’s general book department and organizer of Bushnell’s book signing that the bookstore is sponsoring.

Lipstick Jungle will be available for sale at 30 percent off at Bushnell’s book signing through the Illini Union Board.

“We’re hoping to fill the auditorium during this book signing,” Stowe said. “We have boxes and boxes of her book. We’re well-prepared.”