‘Selling Sunset' - Star Heather Rae Young Retraces Her Playboy Path

Ten years after her Playmate debut, the model turned real estate maven tells us how her pictorial changed her life

- KRISTI BECK

I started at Playboy in event planning, and the first time I worked with Heather Rae Young was during our 2017 Big Game Party. My role has since evolved to partner strategy, which includes keeping up with our kick-ass Playmates. My job allows me to stay in touch with Heather and learn all the exciting developments in her life since she was featured as our February 2010 Playmate.

Heather made everyone at Playboy proud last year as a star of the Netflix original series Selling Sunset. The show centers on the team at the Oppenheim Group, where she works as a high-end real estate agent. Naturally, I sent her a note right after I’d watched the first episode so I could hear all the dish.

I caught up with Heather a couple of times—first in person, and later remotely during quarantine—to chat about what it was like to take the leap from modeling to property deals, how Playboy has impacted her journey and what to expect (high-profile romance alert!) when season two premieres globally on May 22.

PLAYBOY: Can you tell me a little about your PLAYBOY shoot?

YOUNG: I’m Miss February 2010. I shot my pictorial in 2009, and it was an amazing experience. I was in a double issue, with Jaime Edmondson, so we were January and February. I shot with photographer Arny Freytag, and it was about a two-week shoot. The sets were custom-built, so it would be a couple days in between and then a new set would be constructed. My theme was mountain girl because I grew up in Big Bear and nearby Lake Arrowhead in California. I shot my video as well during that time, which was a bathtub scene.

PLAYBOY: How did you go from Playboy to real estate?