Michelle Baena Glamour Model and The girls next door.
I used to daydream of being a model as a teenage girl. I absolutely idolized Christie Brinkley - I would cut out pictures of her and put them up on my wall. And I have always dreamed of being in Playboy Magazine.
I had so much going on in my life for so long that I never had the time to pursue a modeling career. Actually, it’s probably more accurate to say that I never made pursuing a modeling career a priority in my life. In August of 2004, at 31 years of age, I finally made the decision to pursue my dream of a becoming a successful model.
I started off doing TFP (Time for Print) work to flesh out my portfolio and bikini/lingerie modeling, which made me a little money here and there. Like many girls entering modeling, I faced several disappointments early on and had reason after reason to become discouraged. For example, I entered a Bay Area Hawaiian Tropic contest and finished 4th. I also entered the 2004 Ujena Bikini Jam where I finished 19th! But I kept focused on my goal of being successful and despite being turned down for big jobs several times for being “too short”, “too tan”, “not tan enough”, “too fit”, “too muscular”, “not fit enough”, “hair is too long”, “hair is too short”, I finally got a break.
I sent in a few bikini shots in to Playboy.com for their"Real Desperate Housewives” search. One thing led to another and in April 2005, I realized one of my dreams and appeared on the May 2005 cover of Playboy Magazine. This definitely opened the door for me to advance in my career, but I do realize that my career is just starting and I have a lot of goals that I have yet to accomplish. It has now been a year and a half since I first started modeling and I have shot for several fitness magazines, Benchwarmer, Mac & Bumble, and the USA National Bikini Team.
