A glamour model has revealed the brutal reality behind becoming a Playboy Bunny – claiming she auditioned five times for Hugh Hefner’s empire while barely earning enough money to survive.
Jessica Barton says people assume glamour modelling in the early 2000s was all parties, easy money and instant fame – but the reality was low pay, exhausting work and ruthless competition.
The 42-year-old who now lives in Orlando, spent years travelling the country for Playboy casting calls, posing for small editorial shoots and working Playboy club appearances while desperately trying to land her dream role.
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But despite repeatedly auditioning for Hef’s team, Jessica says she was constantly overlooked while watching her friends become Playmates and even Playmate of the Year.
Now boasting over 500K followers on Instagram @jessbartontwin and earning six figures through online content creation, Jessica says people have no idea how difficult the Playboy process actually was behind the scenes.
“I auditioned for Playboy so many times and never quite got there,” Jessica said.
“You’d stand in line for hours hoping someone from Hef’s team would notice you.
“They’d take your photos, talk to you for five minutes and then send you on your way.
“You were constantly competing against the most beautiful women you’d ever seen in your life.
“It was way harder than people think.”
Jessica says Playboy scouts travelled city-to-city holding casting calls for aspiring models.
The hopefuls would strip down, pose for photographers and pray they stood out enough to be remembered.
She said: “Back then Playboy was everything.
“If you were a blonde bombshell in the early 2000s, becoming a Playboy Bunny or Playmate was the dream.
“All my friends were getting picked and I kept thinking, ‘Choose me next.’
“I was always close enough to taste it but never quite made it.”
While the glamorous image suggested luxury lifestyles and huge pay cheques, Jessica claims the reality was shockingly different.
She said: “People think we were making millions but honestly, most of us were broke.
“I was probably making around £15,000 to £20,000 a year modelling and travelling constantly.
“A lot of shoots were basically for free.
“We’d do ‘time for print’ where you worked all day just to get copies of the photos.
“You’d see your pictures everywhere and still struggle to pay rent.”
Jessica says even Playboy’s famous opportunities were far less lucrative than outsiders imagined.
She said: “If you became Playmate of the Month, you’d get paid once and then still be tied into contracts doing signings and appearances.
“You’d think it was life-changing money but looking back now, it really wasn’t.
“We worked insanely hard for very little.”
To make ends meet, Jessica bartended and later worked in strip clubs alongside her modelling jobs.
She said: “I’d work all day at shoots, then bartend all night just to survive.
“I was constantly flying places, taking red-eye flights and barely sleeping.
“I honestly don’t know how I kept going looking back on it now.”
Despite never officially becoming a Playmate, Jessica still attended Playboy parties, landed appearances at clubs and featured in smaller Playboy publications and special editions.
She said: “The parties were honestly the fun part.
“You’d get paid to show up, drink champagne and look pretty.
“But behind all that glamour, everyone was hustling hard.”
Jessica says the pressure to maintain the iconic Playboy image was relentless during the height of the magazine’s popularity.
She said: “In the 90s and early 2000s everybody wanted that Playboy look – blonde hair, huge boobs, spray tans.
“There were thousands of girls trying to become the next big thing.
“You had to constantly look perfect because there was always another girl waiting behind you.”
The model eventually moved away from traditional glamour modelling and later found huge success online during the pandemic.
Jessica now earns more in a month than she used to make in an entire year as a glamour model.
She said: “When I started making real money online, I was honestly in shock.
“My first month I made around £18,000 and I remember thinking, ‘Are you kidding me?’
“I worked harder for over a decade doing traditional glamour modelling than I do now and barely survived.
“Now I finally feel like I’m being compensated for all those years of hustling.”
Jessica says the success has completely transformed her life.
She said: “I bought my dream house, I work for myself and I finally have financial freedom.
“Back then I was calling my mum asking for money to buy food.
“Now I feel secure for the first time in my life.
“That’s the part people don’t understand about glamour modelling back then – we looked glamorous but most of us were struggling.”
Jessica believes the fantasy surrounding Playboy blinded many women to the reality of the industry.
She added: “Everybody saw the mansion and the parties.
“They didn’t see the rejection, the auditions or the girls crying because they weren’t chosen.
“It looked glamorous from the outside but behind the scenes it was brutal.”
