Live free with Nicole Voss, our Miss August 2006. She’s half Swedish, and all natural, with long brown hair and wide blue eyes. She had just moved to Athens, Georgia when decided to go for Playboy on a whim – she took her own nude pictures, with a tripod and a self-timed camera. “I subscribed to Playboy as preparation,” she says. “I tried to re-create the poses I saw in the magazine.” Six months passed – during which time she thought that she had been rejected – and then, one day, she got an email. “I couldn’t believe it,” she says. She was flown to Santa Monica for a test shoot, and the result was her Playmate of the Month pictorial. “Playboy was the only modeling job I’d ever applied for,” she says. “It’s an iconic publication, and I’m so proud to have been chosen.” Nicole was quiet and shy, and her friends and family were surprised – but very happy for her – when she told them that she was going to be the August Centerfold. “My parents bought a few issues of Playboy for posterity,” she says. “As far as I know, they’re still sealed in plastic.” For now, Nicole is taking it all in – when she’s not modeling, she’s at home with her three dogs, cooking, sewing and working in her garden. She plans to return to Georgia to complete her studies in psychology. “I want to live free of earthly restraints,” she says. If by ‘earthly restraints’ she means ‘clothing’, she’s headed in the right direction.