How could it be that a secretary in a New York business office many years ago, turned world wide fetish icon, could have inspired me as a young lady? Like so many women, who never really understand their mark on those in their lives, Bettie never understood her celebrity and the impact she would have on style, fashion, and sexuality in American culture, until late in her life.

How is it that a young girl, lost in the male dominated world of a big city like New York, could fashion a unique style of modeling, posing, hair, and lingerie which would be emulated and admired for generations to come? She styled her own hair with bangs (unheard of at the time), sewed her own bikinis, and set up many of her photo scenes. The camera loved her. There wasn’t a pose, a unique look, a scene she could not express, that didn’t carry on as a timeless memory in the minds of the men who secretly lusted over her or the girls, even ladies, that secretly admired her for her independent bravery to be herself. Her fantasy lived in the dog eared pages of magazines hidden under the mattresses of men and boys across the world. She filled their minds and swelled their hearts with excitement.

Because of the stigma of morality in the time in which she lived, she felt shame and remorse, not knowing how she was secretly admired by so many. Now, in a time of acceptance, she is heralded as Hugh Heffner would say “The Queen of Pinups”.

Bettie Page inspires me to know that I too, can be that fantasy girl in the minds of everyday American men, and an inspiration to women! just like me and Bettie, who are driven to express and seek their personal best. Bettie’s legacy allows me to be that inspiration without shame and I thank her for it. Bettie you will never be forgotten.

~Ursula Ann

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