Alexandra Tyler is on to something. All natural, with chocolate-brown hair and blue eyes, she’s always sweet and rarely sour. A former cheerleader and captain of her squad, she comes to us from Sacramento, California, where she spent her squeaky-clean teen years in sneakers and a ponytail. Despite her straight-A grades, Alexandra’s mother encouraged her to become a model, and four years later, she’s landed campaigns with L’Oréal, Volcom and most recently, a spread with Playboy magazine. “I come from a big family,” says Alexandra, who’s sometimes called Alex for short. “I’m the oldest of five siblings—I have three sisters and one brother—and because I was the oldest, I wasn’t allowed to break the rules.

But that said, my siblings are my best friends, and I loved growing up that way.” A self-described homebody, Alexandra is focused on health and happiness—she loves hot yoga, takes a spin class every day, and tops it all off with a dollop of spontaneity. “I’m a California girl all the way, so I love anything to do with the outdoors,” she says. “The mountains, the beach, I love all that stuff!” Alexandra had been a Playboy reader for some time—her uncle, she explains, has been a subscriber since our inception in ’53—and when she saw our 60th Anniversary Issue with Kate Moss, she made up her mind to become a Playmate.

“Actually, I came to Playboy in a funny way,” she says, reminiscing. “I got an email saying, ‘Hey, we saw your Instagram, we’d love you to come in and test for Playboy’—but when I forwarded it to a Playboy editor, she told me it was a hoax.” As we all know, that’s far from the end of the story. “After that, the editor did look at my Instagram,” says Alexandra, stifling a grin. “She invited me to test, and two days later, I was a Playmate!” For her Playboy spread, we treated Alexandra to a day as a rock n’ roll starlet—big hair and black leather were the order of the day, and she stepped into her role with ease. “This isn’t me showing off,” she explains. “This is me showing the world how proud I am to be a woman. There’s no hiding now—I’m proud to be a Playmate!” As our Miss April 2015, Alex is here to make friends—she can’t wait to meet her fellow Playmates, and is excited to travel with them as representatives of the Bunny. “Earlier in my career, I got used to hearing the word ‘no’,” she explains. “You hear a million ‘no’s’ before you hear that ‘yes’, but it’s all been worth it. Having an open mind always leads you in the right direction!” We’ll follow Alexandra Tyler wherever she goes.

April 2015 Playmate Alexandra Tyler is so gorgeous, Playboy published multiple letters to the editor requesting she appear in future issues — and perhaps even as the next Playmate of The Year. Born and raised in Sacramento, CA, the bookish Alexandra was first encouraged to pursue modeling by her mother, who drove her to a casting call six hours from home when she was still in high school. After that, Alexandra was hooked. As she told us in April 2015, she finished high school in just three years so she could move into entertainment even more quickly. After befriending January 2015 Playmate, Brittny Ward, the whip-smart model “became obsessed” with Playboy magazine. “I bought a subscription and became obsessed with becoming a Playmate,” she revealed during her photo shoot, “I loved how empowered these girls are.” Alexandra got it.

To help further along the self-described “super-girly goody two-shoes’” sense of power, Playboy styled her like Joan Jett for the April shoot. Alexandra admitted that the fierce rocker look was the first time she’d posed naked, and she was all for it. “The entire shoot was an adrenaline rush,” she beamed, “No more hiding now!” At the end, Alexandra boasted, “I’m proud to be a Playmate,” adding that she could tell that honor “was only the beginning” of her relationship with the magazine. When not modeling for Playboy, the half-Spanish model works with fashion companies, spends time with fellow Playmate friends, and just may make the list for future Playmate of the year. It’s obvious she has fans, and Playboy is one of them.