Playboy hunts for NU's Big 12 girl

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By GWEN TIETGEN / Lincoln Journal Star

University of Nebraska-Lincoln sophomore Amanda Van Pelt picked an unconventional way to unleash her inner party girl on Monday. She walked into a room with a photographer for Playboy, undressed and let him snap a few pictures.

Playboy representatives will be in Lincoln throughout the week piecing together Nebraska’s images for its “Girls of the Big 12.” The spread will be featured in Playboy’s October issue.

More nervous before the pictures than during them, Van Pelt said she ended up stripping down to her brown Victoria Secret panties.

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Emily Newlon (left) and Amanda Van Pelt fill out model releases as freelance photographer David Rams waits to do a test shoot for Playboy Magazine's "Girls of the Big 12" issue in a suite at the Holiday Inn Monday evening. (Eric Gregory)

Emily Newlon (left) and Amanda Van Pelt fill out model releases as freelance photographer David Rams waits to do a test shoot for Playboy Magazine's "Girls of the Big 12" issue in a suite at the Holiday Inn Monday evening. (Eric Gregory)

“I do feel more confident,” she said to her friend, Emily Newlon, 19, who awaited her own date with the camera.

Van Pelt, an animal science major who wants to be a veterinarian, said she hasn’t done anything crazy in college. Shedoesn’t go to wild parties and get drunk. She doesn’t smoke. She has been dating the same guy for three years.

So, when she saw an ad for the Playboy shoot, she jumped.

“Screw it,” said Van Pelt, 19, who hails from Mitchell in western Nebraska. “Who cares what anyone thinks? I’m going to go.”

In college, she said, she has been working out and lifting weights regularly. She feels better about her body, she said, so why not show it off in one of the world’s most popular nude magazines?

“It’s kind of like an honor to be good looking enough to be in Playboy,” she said.

Whether chosen or not, Van Pelt said, taking the risk “to put yourself out there and not be afraid to do something crazy” helped her confidence.

“I never thought I’d be skinny enough,” Van Pelt said of herself in high school. Now, her 5-foot-8-inch frame is more defined and about 10 pounds thinner at 140 pounds, she said.

Friend Newlon said she came for fun and to support her friend.

“And to say I went to a casting call for Playboy,” she said.

The experience, Newlon said, would help her feel more comfortable about her body.

Eden Orfanos of Playboy said the magazine last visited Nebraska in 2002. Then, they had a great slate of girls, and one, Chase Alexander, went on to do other modeling, she said.

Photographer David Rams said these girls grew up finding their dad’s hidden issues of Playboy. Now, he said, these girls have a chance to be that “ultimate beautiful woman.”

“Whether you agree with it or not, Playboy is a part of our pop culture,” he said. “It’s a very important part of society.”

Playboy is set to see 25 to 30 girls in Nebraska, but only will shoot five for the October issue, Orfanos said. Usually, only three end up in the magazine, she said.

The college issues, she said, give women who wouldn’t normally do so, a chance to be a model for a day. Only about one-fourth of the girls are interested in pursuing modeling as a career, she said.

“They get to be a princess for the day,” she said.

Reach Gwen Tietgen at 473-7242 or gtietgen@journalstar.com.