Stephanie Adams

You might say that Stephanie Adams is a part of American history. A model and artist from Jersey City, New Jersey, Stephanie is said to be descended from one of America's founding fathers. "I'm related to John and John Quincy Adams," she says. "Family lore has it that John had a couple of girlfriends and, well, you know. My ethnic background is not black or white; it's a mix. And life is not black and white either." Part West Indian, part Irish and part Cherokee, Stephanie's sultry good looks paved the way for a lucrative modeling career. Raised by two aunts, former models themselves, she spent her early years learning all the tricks of the trade. "I want to be on the cover of every magazine, the female equivalent of Michael Jackson," she says. After she graduated - from Catholic and charm schools, respectively - Stephanie headed to college, where she studied business management and marketing. "So I could market myself as a model and manage the money I made," she clarifies. Runway shows and TV ads were par for the course for Stephanie, who was featured in videos for George Benson and Heavy D - but we'd say the business degree was good foresight, because Miss Adams was about to have her biggest payday ever as our Miss November 1992. "Posing nude was fun," she says. "Most models hate lingerie and bathing-suit jobs, but I've always loved showing my body. And Playboy's photographers made my skin look like café au lait." After her issue hit stands, Stephanie came out as Playboy's first openly lesbian Playmate, lauded by The Village Voice as the best lesbian sex symbol in NYC. "I'm definitely not what people would consider the norm, including my sexuality," she says. Though she's now married to a man, we could all take a page from Stephanie's book and have a little more openness in our lives. The saucy Miss November has leveraged her fame into her own company, Goddessy, which deals in all things spiritual and astrological. "I'm very proud of my accomplishments in the competitive world of modeling," she says. "Everyone thinks of me as a Barbie doll - long legs, small waist, girlish face, wild hair. And the boobs, of course." With a smile, Stephanie wraps it all up like this: "Playboy was my favorite modeling job of all."