Ms. Namita Nayyar: You were born in Santa Clara, California and as an ace student, you excelled in English. You graduated with highest departmental honors and college honors in Women’s Studies from UCLA in 2006. In June 2008, you reached the pinnacle of success when you became Playboy’s Playmate of the Month. This propelled your modelling career to the height where you have been at the top of the world of glamour modelling and was also featured in Playboy Magazine multiple times. Tell us something about this fairy tale journey?
Ms. Juliette Fretté: Thank you for such a flattering introduction! In a nutshell, when I was in my third year in college (2005) I conjured up the crazy idea that I might model for Playboy in order to write about it for my honors thesis and thereby analyze the experience from a feminist perspective the pros and cons as it were.
As if on cue, a month or so later Playboy synchronously came to UCLA looking for candidates for their “Girls of the PAC 10” issue. I had been conditioning my body in the gym etc. right around that time and therefore went to the audition knowing that there are indeed no coincidences in this universe. Thus began my adventure into Playboy special editions and eventually my stint as a centerfold in the fascinating world of erotic pinup.
I discovered a lot of empowerment during these introductory years but also a lot of dis-empowerment as well, which was a poignant learning experience for me. It was also an intellectual and spiritual exercise in veering away from extreme positive or negative judgments about what this kind of involvement actually means for women’s progress.
But above and beyond the Playmate experience, I am grateful for the other experiences that were enabled by association, including but not limited to all of the cool people that I’ve met, and also the honor of working with the world renowned Olivia de Berardinas, who is the best living pinup artist in the world. I was able to pose for her as well and now have the pleasure of seeing my likeness expressed in her paintings.
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All Written Content Copyright © 2016 Women Fitness
Ms. Juliette Fretté: Wow . . . “world leading”! That’s a fabulous and flattering accusation. Well, like many of us, I feel I definitely manage multiple personalities. It can be fun and interesting but if you want to keep some sanity and balance in your life, it’s important to stay organized. Luckily I am getting better and better at this.
Ms. Namita Nayyar: What exercises comprise your fitness regime or workout routine?
Ms. Juliette Fretté: I really enjoy a wide range of fitness including running, biking, hiking, strength training, yoga, and more. With trial and error over time I am discovering the right amount of exercise as well which is really more about being intuitive with your body and mind. Ultimately whatever you do to condition your body should come from a place of selflove and selfcare rather than a place of punishment or hating your body which is what a lot of women are taught to do in this culture, sadly.
Ms. Namita Nayyar: Do you have a special diet or strict menu that you follow to remain healthy and physically fit?
Ms. Juliette Fretté: Similar to the exercise situation, over time I have come to a place that is more intuition-based than anything else. That being said, I am a food activist / health researcher in my spare time and I really strive for high quality, unprocessed, organic, pasture-raised, local foods – ingredients that your great grandmother would recognize.
Food quality aside, unlike some of my previous approaches, I do not demonize any food groups. I honestly don’t think carbs are bad. Especially if they’re only minimally processed.
In fact, every traditional food is fair game to me, unless I have an intolerance to it. Notably, I also actively seek out saturated fat specifically – in natural forms of course, and from healthy animals and plants. Anything created in a food lab I stay away from. I accordingly adore farmer’s markets. In this regard, I’m a huge fan of nutrient dense, often high-calorie, super rich foods and subscribe to the work of the Weston Price Foundation and similar alternative health entities.
Oh yeah and I try not to count calories which can be initially challenging if you’ve done it for so long! Alas, I’ve discovered the hard way that the ‘dieting consciousness’ of counting calories or otherwise being hyper vigilant around food absolutely backfires. Listening to, loving, and caring for your body is the best advice that I could ever give for health, beauty, and happiness.
Ms. Namita Nayyar: You have glowing skin and gorgeous hair. Do you take some kind of skin treatment to keep it young and glowing and secondly what you do to your hair to make it look so stunning?
Ms. Juliette Fretté: Thank you! Well, my best kept secrets for awesome skin and hair are mostly dietary and not exactly pleasant. But they’re worth it! To be specific, some super incredible beauty supplements I take for skin and body are a tablespoon of liquid cod liver oil every day as well as non-gmo organic prenatal vitamins for hair.
Moreover, I consistently eat coconut oil from a spoon and I drink a few tablespoons of gelatin collagen mixed in water every morning. The edible collagen I speak of (see ‘Great Lakes Collagen Hydrolysate’ for more info) has so many health benefits and can really help with skin conditions like eczema, improve hair quality, and enhance sleep quality. It is also known to actually rebuild your connective tissue and depleted skin barrier to ultimately heal cellulite and erase wrinkles over time.
That being said, western medicine just writes off deteriorating human bodies as ‘old age’ and ‘genetics’. I alternatively believe that age is simply an accumulation of various habits and belief systems. If they’re healthy ones, they will shine through you over time. Anyway, aside from my unusual food-based health and beauty supplements, I highly recommend using the EWG’s ‘Skin Deep’ app to look for beauty and body care products that are very pure and natural or otherwise low on the toxicity scale. I absolutely adore almost everything by the body care brand ‘Andalou’ in particular.
Videos
Ms. Namita Nayyar: Tell us about your experience of working on “Playboy Video Playmate Calendar 2009” ?
Ms. Juliette Fretté: Well this was actually not a separate project. I shot my playmate Pictorial and corresponding videos for Playboy and they created a number of products from that pool of material. The video calendar is but one of many videos out there.
But to be candid, there are parts of my Playboy videos that embarrass me. I regularly strive to have them removed from unauthorized sites online but to some extent one cannot police the internet! Otherwise I had a lot of fun shooting just about everything with Playboy, even if I am ambivalent about some of the outcomes.
Ms. Namita Nayyar: How did you feel on being selected by Playboy magazine as the Playmate of the Month for June 2008?
As for the Playmate experience, I am glad that I did it, but the article in question was heavily edited without my final review and at the time I was too naive to question the process. For example, there are sentences in there that I simply never wrote – ones that actually criticized other feminist scholars! As much as that aggravated me, I was nevertheless glad to have my overall feminist message delivered to an unorthodox audience (along with my nude body of course).
Ms. Namita Nayyar: Advice and motivational words to the aspiring and budding fashion model girls, who all are your fans and shall like to know from you for their climb to the ladder of success in the field of modelling?
Ms. Juliette Fretté: Everyone has a different path so know that your journey will always be very individual. There is no wrong way to do anything. As long as whatever you are doing is from a place of self love and fearlessness, you will make the best decisions along your path of learning. I recommend constantly reminding yourself that you are a brilliant spiritual being inhabiting a human body and that no matter what you do or don’t do in this life, nothing will change that.
Ms. Namita Nayyar: Tell us more about your working as a contributor to the online Whitehot Magazine of Contemporary Art and about your article “Painting, Playboy and The New Feminist.” ?
Ms. Juliette Fretté: Ah that article was written about me by a fellow Whitehot magazine contributor and colleague Dylan Petley who is a great writer.
I otherwise personally wrote some other articles for the magazine about a year or so before I became a bonafide Playmate. Whitehot magazine is actually the first online publication I ever worked for and I loved it while it lasted! That magazine gave me some great excuses to explore art in ways that I might not have done otherwise and they also gave me an opportunity to fly to New York by myself for the first time at age 23 to have a great adventure!
Videos
https://youtube.com/watch?v=t4Nmn0nSEk4
Ms. Juliette Fretté: I like how you say ‘bold’. As for body confidence, well to be frank, my body image confidence has ebbed and flowed over the years. When you’re a women in the public eye making a living from your sexual appeal, it can sometimes be difficult to separate your self-worth from your appearance. And since my first instinct has historically been type ‘A’ perfectionism, there were times when I had difficulty feeling as confident as I appeared in a consistent way. Luckily over the years, more authentic confidence has made a permanent home in my psyche, for which I am grateful.
So now what is my advice to others with regard to creating body confidence even if you don’t feel super sexy or don’t measure up to your own arbitrary standards? The answer is simple but requires a lot of work. And it may take you years to get it right, but it’s worth the time. Every day you need to talk to yourself preferably aloud (maybe do it in the car or alone if you’re concerned about people thinking you’re a nut). And say to yourself in as many different ways as possible “I love myself”, “I am self-loving”, “I honor my body”, “I am stunningly beautiful in every way”, etc. Say these things five or more times per day even if you don’t really believe them. Eventually you will brainwash yourself. This is not a joke!
Think of it like this. The noise of collective cultural beliefs is always going to be filtering its way into your mind, mostly by way of the media and the surrounding culture – even through your friends and family with their own fears, insecurities, and perceived limitations. Living in this ‘belief system soup’, there’s no way to control whether or not you are absorbing healthy or helpful ideologies. So if that *noise* is always going to be present in your life on an unconscious level, why not create your own special noise (your own belief systems) and actively brainwash yourself before something else does?
Ms. Namita Nayyar: Tell us about a memorable experience you still remember about one of the photo shoots or videos that you wish to share?
Ms. Juliette Fretté: They are all fun in their own right. But I really enjoyed the times when I was able to feature my art in the background or in the forefront of a photoshoot. I also feel lucky that I was able to actually paint some doodles on camera during two of them.
Ms. Namita Nayyar: What do you wish to say about the website Womenfitness.net and message for its visitors?
Ms. Juliette Fretté: I am honored to have been able to be a part of your work! From what I can tell this is an expansive resource for women seeking alternative perspectives to various questions or general entertainment. I am glad to have been a part of the collective enrichment.
Women Fitness Team thanks Juliette Fretté for giving her valuable time for this interview and quenching the thirst of her fans to know more about her and making this interview happen.
To know latest about Juliette Fretté on her social network, check out at: https://twitter.com/juliettefrette
Videos
https://youtube.com/watch?v=GTk9DCYEmWA
All content on this site is copyright of Women Fitness and no part of any article found on this site may be reproduced without an express permission and highlighted, do follow link crediting http://www.womenfitness.net/ or preferably the original page as the source. This interview is exclusive and taken by Namita Nayyar President womenfitness.net and should not be reproduced, copied or hosted in part or full anywhere without an express permission.
All Written Content Copyright © 2016 Women Fitness