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It’s easy to fall in love with the girl next door. Smart, funny, and with an incomparable beauty that radiates from the inside out, Holly Madison won Hugh Hefner’s heart - and then the world’s...E!’s hit show “The Girls Next Door” follows Holly Madison and fellow girlfriends Bridget Marquardt and Kendra Wilkenson around the Playboy Mansion and beyond, showing a side of the Playboy lifestyle that many wouldn’t expect to see from the bunnies. This season, Madison is shown working as a Junior Photo Editor at Playboy Studio West – a position that shows her ambition as well as her talents.
The realness that Madison portrays is part of what draws so many people to the show.
“The show is always evolving and showing more,” she explains, “and we’re always trying to show different sides of us, and keep it from getting us too characterized.”
Though it originally had a stronger male following, ratings for the show have increased and brought a lot of female viewers, something that Madison was pleasantly surprised by.
“We lead a fantasy lifestyle,” she acknowledges. “We get to try a lot of different things and pursue our dreams, no matter how crazy they may be, and I think it’s a fun escape for women.”
And more than anything, Madison thinks it’s the normalcy of the girls that makes them so relatable. She suggests that the difference between their show and others is that “you’re taking three normal girls and putting them in an extraordinary situation.”
Madison herself is a small-town girl, born in Astoria, Alaska, and later raised on Prince of Wales Island. When she was in middle school, her family moved to Portland, Oregon, where she later caught the acting bug. Though she studied acting at Portland State University, her career path has taken her down a different road since moving into the Playboy Mansion and becoming what is referred to by many as “Hef’s Number One Girl.”
The show, now in its fourth season, continues to open doors to a world of opportunities for Madsion. Little did she know that the opportunities presented to her would lead her to a role as a Photo Editor for Playboy – a role that viewers have gotten to watch her grow into.
“I’ve always wanted to live in L.A. and have a career and do something creative,” she recalls. “I could have never envisioned exactly how it would happen, but it happened, and I’m really happy!”
Though many would imagine it as a dream job, Madison emphasizes that it is a big task that requires a lot of her time and energy.
“I was just thinking today how my head is just swimming,” she says with a laugh. “It’s a humongous job! I have so many goals, and I want everything to be the best it can possibly be, and there’s [sic] so many projects I want to take on. But it’s all under the same mantle.”
Madison’s day-to-day life is hectic, as often displayed on the show. Even when Hef and the girls travel, the days are chaotic and leave little time for good ol’ fashioned rest and relaxation.
“I get stressed out,” she says of the pace. “We have a great staff at the mansion that helps us out with a lot of things, but I’ve got a lot of crap on my plate so I panic a lot – just like everybody else.”
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The most recent of which is the upcoming film I Know What Boys Like, starring Anna Farris as a Playboy bunny that is kicked out of the mansion and forced to find her way in the world. Madison, Marquardt and Wilkenson all have roles in the film, where they get to play themselves.
And being herself is exactly what makes Madison such an endearing personality. She works hard, has a quirky sense of humor, and an obvious love for Hef and all of the people in her life. The downside of reality television, however, is that because her life is on film for people to see, she’s often getting asked about things that many would save for chats with their closest friends.
“Everybody asks me if Hef and I are gonna have a baby, or if we’re going to get married,” she says with a sigh. Madison takes it in stride though, understanding that her life is out there for the fans to see, and it’s natural for them to be curious. “Those are the topics that everyone wants to know!” she says with a chuckle.
Though that part of her future may be uncertain, Madison and the others did sign on for one more season of “The Girls Next Door,” which is likely to be the last one.
“For different reasons, we all kind of want to move on and do something different,” she explains. “We want to do different things.”
Madison herself is hoping for a spin-off, something that would allow fans to see more of her work with Playboy as she continues to grow within her position there. She appreciates her fans, and hopes that she can inspire them to chase their own dreams, no matter what they may be.
“Just follow your dreams,” she says simply. “Don’t let the haters talk you down, and don’t let people make you feel like you can’t accomplish something. If it’s your dream, and you work hard enough, you can.”
