Natalia Sokolova

You might say that Natalia Sokolova is resilient. Born in Moscow, blonde-haired Natalia made the leap from Russia to the good old U.S. of A. by way of the University of Maryland - and tragically, during her first semester, she was in a serious car accident. "The doctors said I would never walk again," she says. "My attitude was, I'm going to walk again, or I'm not going to live." Not content to spend her life in a wheelchair, Natalia now walks on her own two feet, and credits her recovery to physical therapy and her own hard-nosed determination. Once her wounds had healed, Natalia was surprised to find that she had Playboy on the brain. "I'd never really thought about modeling," she admits. "I'm an honors student, and I was raised conservative. But now, I'm glad that I chose to do Playboy - I wanted to take a break, to live a little!" If you ask us, Miss Sokolova has lived a lot, and as our Miss April 1999, she's a true vision of loveliness. "I'm going to stay in the United States," she says. "I miss my family and I love Moscow, but I also love California! I want to receive an MBA, have a happy family and maybe open a preschool. I think nothing is impossible - the secret is hard work." With beauty and brains like hers, Natalia would be hard pressed not to succeed.