We had a great conversation with Model / Actress & Spring 2021 Playboy Playmate Hailee Lautenbach on The Chris & Sandy Show. We talked about so many things from family, acting, modeling, being a Playboy Playmate, sacrifices, she told some great stories to a whole lot more!
I’m pretty much an open book. I have no filter on social media—I once posted a selfie in a porta potty. So you could say nothing is really off limits for me. Following me on Instagram is basically like watching a reality show.
From an early age, I knew I wanted to go to Hollywood and become a star. I love my hometown now, and I even moved back to Portland to live near my family during quarantine, but growing up I couldn’t wait to get out. I tried out for a bunch of sports as a kid but it didn’t stick. The coaches would yell at me during tryouts because I was so unathletic, so I decided to try modeling instead. I submitted my pictures to an agency and started modeling when I was 14. Besides modeling, I didn’t have much of a social life back then. My classmates saw me as the weird, nerdy model who liked Harry Potter and video games—and they were right!
When I turned 18 I applied to the University of Oregon, but I knew deep down that wasn’t what I wanted to do. I wanted to go to Los Angeles and pursue modeling full time. I met with a bunch of agencies in L.A. and I ended up getting signed.
Moving to L.A. was such a whirlwind. On the one hand I was living my dream, but on the other hand it was like starting from scratch. I lived in a little studio and I would go to all these castings and meet other models. At the time I thought these people were my lifelong friends, but I learned very quickly that they weren’t. I was basically friendless living in L.A., but whenever I walked around and looked up at the palm trees, I truly did feel at home.
This might sound silly, but I began to feel comfortable in L.A. when I started to get more followers on Instagram, around a year after I moved there. It was a great way for me to make friends with people. At the time, people would post pictures of their food or a random tree they saw, but I posted a lot of modeling photos and began oversharing about my life. Back then, agencies didn’t really want models to have a personality. I got a lot of slack for it, but I’m glad I kept doing it. I probably wouldn’t have become a Playmate if it wasn’t for my Instagram!
People who followed me were always telling me I should pursue acting because of my larger-than-life personality, but I was really focused on modeling at the time. But one day when I was shopping at the Grove, the entertainment news show Extra was there filming and they asked me to do a little clip. It was so much fun to be able to talk instead of just posing for the camera; I was bit by the acting bug right away. I fell in love with acting and threw myself into that.
Now I act, model and do a lot of content creation for social media. I love being silly and inspiring my followers. Some of my videos might seem kind of dumb or cringy, but that’s the kind of stuff that is relatable to people.
I’m also really open about my mental health on social media. A few years ago I started to realize I was struggling with my mental health. I would be stuck in bed for days at a time, unable to leave the house. I would stop taking care of myself and I would either scroll away watching people’s Instagram stories or turn off my phone and disconnect from everyone. I knew something wasn’t right, so I called my mom and asked her to set up a doctor’s appointment for me—even that was too much for me to handle on my own at the time.
I found out that I have anxiety and depression, and I learned how to manage it. Once I started to get treatment, I started sharing with my followers about my mental health situation. I thought talking about it might be cheesy or that no one would care, but I got so many DMs from people who told me my posts helped them. I was like, Well, dang! It’s such a simple thing to talk about and it makes everyone feel less weird about it. I know if I had seen someone else open up on social media, I probably would have figured out my own issues a lot earlier.
Even though some people might think I share too much or use social media too much, I don’t feel the need to take breaks or stop. I enjoy posting things that make me happy or things I think will help people. The more real I am online, the more my followers might also feel empowered to be themselves and not put up a façade. The more good energy I put out there, the more good energy I get back. When you’re a good person, the world changes around you for the better. My life isn’t perfect, but it’s freaking amazing!
Her story from https://www.playboy.com/profile/hailee-lautenbach
#HaileeboBailee #Model #Playboy #Playmate #Actress
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