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WEST HARTFORD —— from www.courant.com – There have been 710 issues of Playboy magazine published since December 1953, each featuring at least one “Playmate of the Month,” sometimes two.

Of the hundreds of centerfold models, not one has called Connecticut home, according to a Playboy spokeswoman.

But when the latest issue hits newsstands Friday, residents may recognize Miss March 2013. She’s 23-year-old West Hartford native Ashley Wilson.
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Wilson – who goes by Ashley Doris in Playboy – is a 2007 graduate of Hall High School and has worked at Lane and Lenge Florists on Park Road since she was 18.

“I rep [my hometown] so hard,” Wilson, who is in San Diego, said during a Skype interview on Monday. “I’m a West Hartford girl through and through.”

At Hall, Wilson danced in the annual “Pops ‘n Jazz” show, which features more than 100 student musicians, dancers and singers. She says she was “an avid reader of romance novels,” and a normal teen who might skip class to go to the Bishops Corner Dunkin’ Donuts or hang out at Eisenhower Park with friends.

“Ashley’s a girls’ girl; she always has been,” said her mom, Linda Wilson. “She always played dress-up. Even when she could barely walk, she’d put on the most exotic outfits.”

Ashley was different from the rest of the family, who work in construction, Ashley’s mom said. The Wilsons own West Hartford-based A Dynamic Construction.

“I always knew she would end up doing something with modeling,” Linda Wilson said.

In 2009, West Hartford photographer Cheyney Barrieau, a veteran model herself, took test modeling shots of Ashley Wilson for free. Wilson sent the shots out to modeling agencies in Boston and New York, and signed with two Boston agencies.

“From then on, she was working, which was great,” Barrieau said.

Barrieau said Wilson has come a long way since that first shoot.

“I’m really excited for her because when I [first] took her picture it was like a deer in the headlights. She didn’t know what to do,” Barrieau said. “Sure enough, she paid attention, she worked it. The last shoot I did with her was last summer – I didn’t have to do anything, she knew it all.

“She blossomed into the model she is now and I hope it continues to take her places,” Barrieau said.

Wilson says posing nude for Playboy is vastly different from her usual modeling work.

“I’m not 6 feet tall, so I went with more commercial modeling,” she said. Wilson has appeared in ads for Lane and Lenge Florists, Reebok and Adidas, and she plays a pharmacist in an upcoming CVS campaign.

Wilson said she was “definitely apprehensive” about posing nude when she went to the Playboy casting in Las Vegas. She was there in August competing in the Miss Hawaiian Tropic contest. Her roommate for the competition said they should both go to the casting, which was being held near the hotel elevators.

“At first I was like, no, I’m OK,” she said. But she went, and then it was Playboy’s turn to come calling.

She posed for Playboy.com in September and the photographer referred her to a Playmate casting in November.

Wilson flew out to Los Angeles in December and spent 21 days at the famed Playboy Mansion posing for her centerfold shoot.

Wilson said she didn’t tell her “conservative” parents what she was doing until the 19th day.

“I was really surprised,” Linda Wilson said. “First, I didn’t understand. She goes, ‘Mom, I’m a Playmate’.”

“I said you’re working at a club? I’d forgotten about the word ‘Playboy’,” Linda Wilson said. “I was flabbergasted.”

But once Linda Wilson understood what was going on, she was very proud of her daughter.

“She’s living her dream,” she said. “To me, it’s a major accomplishment for her … Out of 18,000 girls a month that they review, she made it.”

Beyond Playboy, Ashley Wilson said she hopes to get into real estate one day. She’s currently working to finish her communications degree online through Southern New Hampshire University.

But for now, the bachelorette said she’s having fun meeting the other 2013 Playmates, who she says are “surprisingly down-to-earth.” She’s looking forward to spending this year traveling for event appearances as part of the gig.

She’s also excited to come home. In July, she’ll appear at the 23rd Annual New England Summer Nationals car show at the Thompson International Speedway.

“It’s been surreal,” she said. “I feel like I’m going to wake up and they’re going to be like, ‘I’m so sorry, Ashley, you’re such a nice girl, but it’s not going to work out’.”