A Field Guide To Brittany Mason

Beauty queens who pose topless haven't always had the happiest of endings. Just thirty years ago, Miss America Vanessa Williams relinquished her crown amidst a nude photo scandal, and it wasn't too long ago that Miss California Carrie Prejean got in hot water after a sex tape surfaced. But as eternal optimists, we like to think that the times are a changing, and that former Miss Indiana Brittany Mason's recent decision to pose topless is a sign that maybe one day, nudity and beauty queens really will be two great tastes that taste great together (instead of two great tastes that try to battle each other to the death).

Assuming Brittany really is the herald of a new generation, where beauty queens can show their bits without worrying about being slammed for being unwholesome, we figure we should probably learn a bit more about her. After all, when we're all celebrating the groundbreaking power of her photos in a few years, it'd be embarrassing if we didn't know her backstory, right?

Brittany Mason was born September 1, 1986, and grew up in Anderson, Indiana. At the age of sixteen, her life took a dramatic turn for the exciting, when she signed her first modeling contract and moved to New York to pursue a career in looking stunning on camera. Around the same time, she took her first steps into the glamorous world of pageants, competing for (and winning) the title of Teen Indiana. That title led to the Teen Model of the USA competition, which she also won; in 2004 she competed for Teen Model of the World. Though she didn't win the final title, she did come in second out of fifty-two contestants, and had the honor of going home withe title of Miss Photogenic. Four years later, she was back on the pageant scene, adding the Miss Indiana USA crown to her collection (for those keeping track, she placed 7th in the subsequent Miss USA pageant).

But winning pageant titles is far from Brittany's only skill: while she was winning titles around the world (well, country), she was also honing her modeling and acting skills; and working to get a whole bunch of awesome gigs. And her hard work has paid off: Brittany's modeling career has included work with such prestigious clients as Vogue, Sports Illustrated, Bebe, GQ, Esquire, Yves Saint Laurent, Ferragamo, Seventeen Magazine, and Maxim Magazine; in 2010 she was even the face of the John Frieda Go Blonder campaign. On the acting front, Brittany's appeared in a little show you may have heard of called "Two and a Half Men" (she played Jason Alexander's secretary); she also studies at the Lee Strasberg Institute, like a big ol' fancypants.

And of course no modern celebrity career would be complete without a stint on reality TV. Brittany had her brush with reality stardom in 2013, when she appeared on four episodes of "The Face" (aka the modeling reality show that isn't "America's Next Top Model"). Though she was eliminated from the competition fairly early on, she still managed to win the title of fan favorite – a pretty solid testament to her charm and appeal, if you ask us.

Not surprisingly, appearing on "The Face" helped raise Brittany's profile even higher, and led to some pretty sexy modeling gigs with Maxim and Esquire. We don't know if those scantily clad photos laid the groundwork for her eventually topless modeling, but we do know that as early as last summer she was nipteasing the world with covered topless photos, perhaps testing the waters before she made the leap into the full on toplessness she rocks so well. 

It will, of course, remain to be seen whether Brittany's pioneering nude modeling changes the world for the pageant winners her follow in her footsteps. But even if she doesn't manage to mend the truce between nudity and pageants (a Nobel Peace Prize worthy challenge, if you ask us), she's still made strides in other areas of charitable work. A dedicated philanthropist, Mason has committed herself to combatting bullying, creating her very own anti-bullying curriculum, which she's personally brought to upwards of a 100,000 students (a feat which won her Anderson, Indiana's Service to Mankind award). Outside of grade schools, she's brought her time and attention to recovery work in Haiti, campaigning for Barack Obama, and work with the Model Alliance, an organization dedicated to protecting the rights of working models.

With her talent, beauty, and commitment to charity, Brittany Mason has everything it takes to change the world. And whether she accomplishes that by, say, expanding her repertoire to include full frontal nudity, or just advocating for the rights of teenage models, we'll still be in awe of her. (Though if we're being honest, we're hoping for a situation where we get to admit both her brains and fully naked beauty.)