Just because Crystal Lynn's friends idolize her for posing in Playboy doesn't mean her parents have to know about it.
Lynn, a German and business junior, said she has yet to tell her parents she posed for the adult magazine.
"The whole thing was very random and unexpected in the first place," Lynn said. "I'm sure my parents won't be thrilled when they find out, but I plan to tell them about it eventually."
Lynn was one of four MSU students featured in Playboy's October 2003 issue "Girls of the Big Ten," a ten-page pictorial featuring Playboy's picks of the best-looking women from the Big Ten.
Lynn, Lisa Danielle and Tiffani Hollowell, two other girls featured, autographed copies of the October issue at Community Newscenter, 418 Frandor Shopping Mall, and Big Ten Party Store East, 1108 E. Grand River Ave. Sarah Smith also posed, but couldn't make it to the autograph session.
Playboy spokeswoman Melissa Gorski said the names of some of the girls might have been changed in the interest of their safety, but Playboy officials verified that they were students at MSU. She declined to say how much each girl was paid for their modeling.
Danielle said a friend clipped an ad about the auditions she had seen in the newspaper and showed it to her. She said at first she was reluctant, but her friend helped sway her decision.
"She asked me, 'How many times do you get to pose for Playboy?'" Danielle said. "I realized she had a good point."
The audition was in April, but Danielle said she only found out she would be featured when Gorski informed her last week.
Hollowell said she first heard about the auditions through Playboy's Web site.
"I've always wanted to pose for Playboy, and I saw they were having casting calls so I decided to audition," Hollowell, a family community services senior, said.
Lynn said her friends are probably more excited about her posing than she is, and she's not really interested in all the publicity.
"My ex-boyfriends really love it," Lynn said. "They go around telling everyone they know a girl who posed for Playboy."
All of the women said they don't think their posing reflects on the image of the university in any way.
"We attend MSU, but Playboy is a separate entity altogether," Hollowell said. "It only reflects our individual decisions to pose."
MSU Spokesman Terry Denbow said the students who posed in the magazine are completely separate from the university.
"This was not a university project, event of any kind," he said, adding that MSU prohibited Playboy's use of the school's logo in the magazine. "Since these people are individual, there is no institutional relationship as far as I'm concerned."
Gorksi said the last time Playboy ran the "Girls of the Big Ten" issue was October 1997, which included seven girls from MSU. She said that more than 50 students from Big Ten schools are featured in this year's issue.
"This is one of the most popular issues of the year," Gorski said. "We've always featured 'the girl next door,' and this is more like 'the girl sitting next to you in class,' so it's very popular."
Gorski said Playboy has published an annual college edition in October for the past 26 years, though this is just the fifth time they've done a "Girls of the Big Ten" edition. She said there have been "Girls of the Ivy League" and "Girls of the Big 12" editions also.
Gene Moutsatson, co-owner of Community Newscenter, said Playboy sent him 500 copies of the magazine and he sold between 250 and 300 of them in the two-hour autograph session.
