Playboy model turns heads in A2

Yesterday, Campus Corner and Playboy magazine held an autograph
session for Art and Design senior Yen Shipley to promote her
appearance in Playboy’s October “Girls of the Big Ten” issue that
hit newsstands on Aug. 22. Manager Joe Kraim said this is the first
time Playboy has done an autograph session at the party store, but
hopes it isn’t the last. Kraim estimated Campus Corner would sell
500 issues of the magazine and even got an autograph of his own on
a Campus Corner T-shirt to join the store’s collection of rare
items.

Although Shipley had never given her autograph before, she was
definitely prepared for the session.

“I have been practicing my autograph since I was four, is that
narcissistic or what?” Shipley joked, adding she originally dreamed
of signing autographs as an opera singer.

The autograph session went smoothly and Shipley said that most
fans have been courteous and respectful when they approach her
about the photo. Playboy’s newsstand operations director Lee
Waedekin stood by Shipley throughout the session in suit and tie,
but insisted he was not needed to monitor Shipley’s fans.

“Everyone really behaves themselves at these types of events, we
don’t need to worry about anyone misbehaving,” Waedekin said.

The signing left employees and students wanting more. LSA junior
Dustin Schneider, one of the many students to receive an
autographed copy of the magazine, and Kraim shared disappointment
that the other University students in Playboy – Adrienne Rose,
Sarah Louise and Lauren Kathleen – could not make it for the
signing.

“The two blond girls (Louise and Kathleen) are unbelievable,”
Schneider said.

“We were wondering if we could get more girls in here,” said
Kraim, “but they didn’t accept that, (and) that is up to
Playboy.”

Waedekin said the other students were tied up with class during
the shoot that lasted from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m.

Interestingly, being late for a class is the way Shipley
originally found out about the opportunity to pose. Then just weeks
after an interview and an audition photo shoot with polaroids,
Shipley found herself in the Millennium Club for the real
thing.

“It was a great process,” Shipley said. “I showed up (and) they
were really professional and personable. It was a very comfortable
experience.

“As artists, we see naked people all the time – drawings,
sculptures, paintings,” said Shipley, a general studies major in
the fine arts who is in her last semester at the University. “So it
wasn’t a big thing to me at all.”

Even after the final shoot in the spring, Shipley wasn’t
notified that she was in the magazine until two weeks before the
issue hit newsstands. But Shipley made sure the decision was no
secret, informing her mom after the audition and telling her dad
after the final photo shoot. She said that both family and friends
have been very supportive throughout the whole process. Her sister
has been telling everyone she knows and also a lot of people she
doesn’t know.

Shipley insisted that she doesn’t see the photo “as a hindrance
in any way, as far as my career goes,” as she continues to dream of
a life in singing, acting or painting. She also didn’t rule out
another photo shoot.

“I won’t necessarily pursue it, but if the opportunity comes up
again and the offered me something, I would do it,” Shipley
said.