Exclusive: Shauna Sand Interview Part 2; ‘I Taught My Daughters to Never Give Up’
Recently I had the privilege to debut Part 1 of my three-part interview with former Playboy Miss May 1996 and
Ivy Griffith
Recently I had the privilege to debut Part 1 of my three-part interview with former Playboy Miss May 1996 and all-around entrepreneur, Shauna Sand. In the first part, we discussed life during the pandemic, loss, and how she’s learned to adapt to changing circumstances. In Part 3, we will explore her business acumen and what has made her so successful. In part 2 however, I asked her about motherhood, and she was candid about the body image issues that she was able to overcome.
A Mom to Three Successful Daughters
When hearing Sands talk about her daughters, the pride in her voice was obvious. All three are successes in their own right, and generally good people. I had to ask how she managed to raise three such wonderful daughters.
Sand responded thoughtfully, “My dream in life was to have a family. That was the most important thing for me. I think that stems from the fact that I have so much love, and I’m very maternal. And I love taking care of people.”
Sand continued, “And also the fact that my childhood wasn’t ideal. I moved around all the time, and I changed schools. Every two years. I changed houses every two years, I changed cities and states and countries every two years. And so I moved out of my house when I was 15 years old. I traveled all over.”
Sand talked about her early modeling career and the opportunities that came her way. Thinking on the chances she had to expand her career but put family first, Sand explained, “The most important thing for me was to create a family. Then I did Playboy, and I was an actress. But I always put my family and my kids first. I turned down probably 75% of my work. My mom was half Russian, half Romanian, and Playboy called me and they said, ‘Playboy Romania wants you for the cover, and they’re gonna fly you there.’ I was married to Lorenzo at the time. And I had just had a baby, and I thought, ‘no, I don’t want to leave my babies. I don’t want to fly without Lorenzo.’ So I turned it down. I just turned everything down. Because I always put my kids first.”
How Did She Teach Them to Succeed?
Sand added, “People have asked me, ‘how did you raise such beautiful, independent, strong, women?’ And my answer to all of that is that they were my passion. And I filled them up with so much love. I always told them to follow their passions in life, and I was not strict at all. I’ve been asked if I disciplined my children and no, I did not. I literally just I took them on so many trips and traveled. I took them to Paris, I would take them to Miami, I’d take them to so many museums. I taught them about culture. I filled them up with so much love and fun.”
When asked how she handled giving her children material possessions, Sand assured that she never spoiled them but modeled a strong work ethic. Sand explained, “I taught them to be independent, they all live on their own. They’ve all been paying their own bills since they were 18. I did not spoil them at all, like no one got a car. They had to work for everything. I think that I instilled that work ethic in them because I started working when I was nine. And I managed a shoe store when I was 12. I always paid for my myself. I was really blessed as far as having my grandfather and my parents pay for my education. But as far as like anything materialistic, I had to pay for everything on my own. And that taught me the value of a dollar. I’ve always taught my girls to work for everything. And I’ve given them what they need, but not spoiled at all. The thing is that they can talk to me about everything and they tell me everything because we’re more all like sisters. I had them pretty young too, and really close together. But we have such a tight bond.”
Alexandra, Victoria, and Isabella Are Taking the World by Storm
Turning to the topic of her daughter’s numerous achievements, Sands’ voice lit up with pride; “Alexandra‘s Going to medical school, she just signed with this modeling agency. So she’s working every single day modeling, she just did the BB campaign. And she’s up for the Maxim magazine modeling cover for Australia and she just won the next phase. I think she has like two or three more phases to get that cover. So we’re really excited about that, and most of the money goes to charity. All three of my kids are really into charities and giving back and helping people. And Victoria is just lovely. She’s an incredible painter; she went to Pratt University on a scholarship. She’s an actress as well. They’re really focused on their school and their education. And Isabella signed up for real estate school. We both want to do that, and she wants to be my partner. She loves Selling Sunset, so that would be really cute for both of us to be on there. Isabella is a people person. She’s really outgoing and bubbly, and gorgeous, and just really fun loving, so we wanted to partner up and do that, but she’s also in school for fashion and modeling. My mom also instilled a lot of love in the girls. And she also taught them to be really independent, like she did with me. I’ve always taught them to not accept no; we really don’t know what no means. Which means we don’t give up. Don’t get discouraged and don’t accept no, it’s not in our vocabulary.”
An Ideal Image of Beauty, Sand Struggled to Accept Her Body Like Everyone Else
Sand spoke with me about how she came to be a Playmate, and how she came to terms with insecurities about her body that she struggled with from a young age. Explaining her insecurity, Sand shared, “I developed really big 34 DD boobs at the age of 14 on and people would make fun of me, so I had a complex about it. I thought I would need to get a breast reduction because everyone’s making fun of me about these giant real boobs. And I felt they make me look bad. I was very insecure. When I met Lorenzo I said, ‘This guy from Mexico is still asking me to do the cover of Playboy in Mexico, what should I? Do you think I should do it?’ And he responded, ‘No, you should do Playboy America!’”
From there, Sand’s ex-husband sent her pictures to the editor of Playboy and she was given the title of Playmate of the Month right away. Sand continued, “That has really changed my life, because that complex went away. I embraced my body and loved my big boobs, and held my head up high. I had a totally different perception and different body image inside, which helped my self esteem and my self confidence. Which in turn enabled me to be an actress, to hold my head up high and be proud of who I was. And I think that’s important. Everyone should embrace the body they’re given and be proud of who they are. And not feel shameful in any way.”
Sand Believes Everyone Has Something to Offer the World
While most people might look at Sand and see a confident woman who has never had a reason to doubt her beauty, under the surface she is a very real human being who has overcome insecurities like everyone else. Sand had these words of love and encouragement for fans and supporters who are fighting their own inner doubts, “I have my three daughters, and each child was born with a gift. Each human being is born with a beautiful gift. They’re all born with something special inside. And I think every human and individual on this planet has something beautiful to offer the world. Everyone should be proud of who they are no matter what.”
Don’t forget to check back for Part 3 of this inspiring interview with Shauna Sand. In part three we will explore her career, including the achievements many may not know about. Sand has much more to offer the world than her beauty, and we talked about the achievements she’s most proud of, the education and businesses she’s succeeded at, and she shared with me her secret to the Fountain of Youth. Part three will be released next week, but in the meantime, fans looking to connect with Sands can visit her OnlyFans page or her Ebay store. Also be sure to check out Part 1 if you haven’t, Sand was very open about her experience coping with the last year’s turbulence and the loss of her mother.