Sara DeLisa (she/her), a Colorado Native of Filipino ancestry shares her thoughts on Playboy, body image and the power of self-acceptance.

When you hear the word Playboy Bunny, what do you think? 

My initial thoughts are thin and blonde and traditional values of beauty. I think silicone and plastic and they're curvy [woman] but they are artificially curvy and trimmed in in the same places and so, I feel like the idea we get in our brains about what is sexy or what is hot is based on the Playboy framework of thin and beautiful. 

Do you consider yourself to be a Playboy bunny, or have you ever desired to be in Playboy? 

I feel like at some point, every woman looks at that and sees that this is the image of sexuality and say “I would love to do that” and be put on this pedestal of hotness, however I don't know that I necessarily ever was like, yes, I want to be a Playboy bunny, but I feel like I have always been interested in the idea of doing nude modeling of some kind. 

What is one thing that people would never know about you just from looking at you? 

People don't know from looking at me that I am a deeply anxious person. I utilize my anxiety like a superpower. When I feel nervous or scared, I tend to really indulge in the fact that I own my brain and my body and all the things that make me uniquely myself. Plus, I'm really, really smart, I have a master's degree in public health and people don't realize that just by seeing me as this person who has purple hair and fun makeup, and I’m fat, that is kind of a contradiction to some people. 

How do you feel you could be a change or bring a different representation to Playboy? 

I feel like we are in kind of an era of incredible body positivity and a movement towards not just acceptance and tolerance but celebration of bodies that look different across all walks of life. I would love to see and endorse and be a part of a version of Playboy that looks like everyday people and looks like sexiness as it is not tailored to a traditional model of beauty. 

You had breast reduction and had scarring. Has any of that affected your confidence and would you like to see more natural bodies, scars, stretch marks in Playboy? 

I would absolutely love to see that. You know, for me, my breast reduction was a journey in health. They took six pounds out of my chest when I was 19 and I was always viewed as a sex object when I had very, very large breasts and now I feel like I get to own my sexuality, other people don't get to put that on me. Seeing a variety of bodies and every beautiful essence that they have, whether from scarring or otherwise would be incredible to see in any publication that has been traditionally rooted in sexiness and the traditional view of sexiness. 

Final Thoughts? 

One thing that is important is that all women are real women. There is this weird narrative around thin women not being real women and I hear people saying “I need a real woman with meat on her bones”, that's kind of the answer to the skinny fetishizing that happened in earlier generations but whether or not you are thin or fat or trans, you are a woman and I think that we need to stop pitting women against each other and start building each other up.