A Prince George woman is gaining altitude in a glamour magazine model search.
Brandi Hansen has been voted through by online fans into the Top 100, leaving thousands of other contestants in her jet stream.
She was expecting nothing but turbulence when she entered the Maxim Cover Girl 2019 Model Competition because, by her own admission, she is not a model, won't be a model, and refused to go through the usual Maxim customs with her entry.
"I'm doing things differently than what Maxim is used to," she said. "I submitted my photos on a whim, I didn't expect it would go anywhere, but they contacted me from Maxim and told me I was in. Wait... what? Yeah, I was in, even though all my photos show me hunting, fishing, shooting my bow, flying a plane, completely clothed in every shot. I didn't have a single pretty photo."
It resonated with the public. Hansen's presentation was, by Maxim standards, a bit like showing up to a fighter jet convention in a helicopter, but the crowds still gathered round.
Hansen sailed through the preliminary rounds. She kept winning her groupings, her ball caps and camo always winning over the lingerie and bikinis. She is now into the semi-finals.
If it all ended now, Hansen said, she has already made a point. Comments and opinions have flowed in, many of them from parents of little girls thanking her profusely for reframing the conversation around femininity.
That was exactly the flight plan Hansen filed when she entered the competition. She is a professional pilot, working on her accreditation at BP Aviation in Penticton and the Victoria Flying Club. She is also an active member of Search & Rescue. She pledged at the start of the Maxim adventure that should she win the $10,000 prize money, all of it would be divided up into donations: four for scholarships for aspiring female pilots and one to B.C. Search & Rescue.
"When I was growing up, my favourite TV show was Airwolf and my favourite superhero was Wonder Woman because she had an invisible jet," she said, explaining where her aviation passion flew in from. She named her donation pledge the Higher Further Faster Fund, in honour of today's breakthrough female superhero Captain Marvel that is popular with all genders.
"I grew up playing with my brothers," Hansen said. "Indiana Jones was my No. 1 favourite. If I wasn't going to be a pilot, I would have become an archeologist. We played He-Man and G.I. Joe and Transformers. So many girls get handed pink bunnies and unicorns, and that's fine, there's nothing wrong with that at all, but we just have to know that girls are capable of Airwolf and Barbie. So are boys."
"If you give girls access and permission to play with helicopters and power tools, and you give boys access and permission to dolls and unicorns, imagine the improvements you'd see in the world. Everyone would find their own natural, true selves."
Her true self involves the great outdoors, the wide open skies, and the cozy nest where she's also a mom to a son and daughter.
Pursuing Maxim's cover in this unorthodox manner is her way of showing them what all people are capable of, and what women can accomplish with a full wardrobe of clothing.
"I'm not judging the girls in the competition wearing the skimpy clothes, they are on their own walk, they are doing what they think is best for them, I'm not knocking them at all," said Hansen.
"I'm just showing an alternative. I'm widening the conversation. I'm amazed that it has gone this well, I think that actually says a lot about society that someone like me is advancing in a competition like this."
Hansen went to Heritage Elementary and D.P. Todd Secondary as she grew up, and still has a large circle of family and friends in Prince George (she also lived for a time in Mackenzie).
She's hoping the hometown support will get her through to the finals.
Voting takes place at the maximcovergirl.com website.
The new round started Monday and runs to June 13. You can vote once per day for free, or buy blocks of votes with the money going to the Canadian Cancer Society.
