Say aloha to Ashley Hobbs, Playmate of the Month December 2010. A natural blonde with jade-green eyes, she’s ¼ Hawaiian, and she exudes a sexuality best suited to warm water and wet bathing suits, not out of place in a tropical paradise. She grew up in Kailua, a beach town on the Hawaiian island of Oahu. “My middle name is Ku’ulei,” she says. “I don’t really speak Hawaiian, but I know that it means ‘beloved’. And that’s the way I feel right now – my friends and family have been so supportive, and they told me that the December issue of Playboy is sold out in Kailua.” Ashley has been modeling since she was a kid – “I was an extra in a Barbie commercial,” she says, laughing – and when she turned eighteen, a friend of hers suggested that she submit her pictures to Playboy. “I wasn’t ready,” she says, “but a year or so later, another friend made the same suggestion, and I thought, ‘Why not?’” She went to a casting at the Mansion in Los Angeles, and four weeks later was flown back to test for Playmate. “It was intense,” she says, “especially the Centerfold shoot. I was late to the set, didn’t eat breakfast and had to hold the same pose for twenty minutes under hot lights. I actually fainted.” An intern fanned her with a magazine, and she recovered in time to shoot the Christmas centerfold. Before she was Miss December, Ashley was a supervisor for a nonprofit organization – “Providing support services to individuals with cerebral palsy,” she says proudly – and was working toward a degree in communications from a local college. “I moved to Los Angeles so I could keep all my Playboy commitments,” she says. “I had intended to move back to Hawaii and finish my degree, but my modeling career has really taken off.” For now, she’s living and working in Los Angeles, and after a residency at the Bunny House, she’s good friends with her fellow Playmates. “Playboy is like a family,” she says. “I feel so lucky to have been given this opportunity, and I just want to enjoy the ride.” Ashley tells us about her past, present and future plans in her Facetime interview.