Kerissa Fare is a testament to how a positive self-image can help a woman bloom. As a former tomboy who grew up poor in Riverside, California, the fresh-faced 23-year-old didn't always have a love affair with the camera. "I used to run from it," she says. "I had low self-esteem and I always wore jeans and T-shirts with my hair pulled back--I was 150 pounds just a few years ago! I did my school-work and graduated early because I wanted to move out on my own." On her own at age 17, Kerissa learned self-sufficiency at an early age. "I was a latchkey kid. When I was 11, I cooked for myself and cleaned the house for my dad because he worked two jobs to support my brother and me. (Her mother left when Kerissa was young.) But I wouldn't change anything about my childhood--I'm glad I grew up independent and knew how to take care of myself."
Given her hardscrabble background, it should not come as a surprise that Kerissa is open to the unexpected. "I love to take risks and try new things," she says. The list includes waterskiing, roller-skating and jet skiing. Professionally, Kerissa has taken a stab at everything, from veterinary assistant to pool shark. "I've been playing pool for about six years," she says. "I got a fake ID when I was 17 and started playing in a local pool hall. I eventually hooked up with another girl pool player and we did a tournament together and won a trip to Vegas. It was really rad."
Harmony, an empowerment course that Kerissa took in Sacramento, completely changed her life. "I became a woman after that course," she confesses. "I got in touch with myself and my femininity." Although people compare her to Claudia Schiffer and Pamela Anderson, Kerissa considers Marilyn Monroe a role model, especially after seeing one of her movies at the Playboy Mansion. "Marilyn was sweet and innocent, yet she wasn't," she says. "But she was friendly with everybody, male or female, and it wasn't threatening to her. Marilyn could talk to a man and treat him like a person and not feel like he was coming on to her. That's how I feel."
Now that Miss September's modeling career is on the right track with stints for Bacardi and the new Zebrahead CD, this single blonde's ambition is to find a man whose joie de vivre matches her own. "I like a guy with a great sense of humor, someone with a quick wit who I can have fun with," she says. "One time my boyfriend got up at seven in the morning and said, 'I'm going to make you a surprise. Go back to sleep and I'll wake you up when it's ready.' An hour and a half later, he blindfolded me and led me upstairs to the bathroom. I heard Sade playing and when he took off my blindfold, I saw that he had filled the Jacuzzi with milk and little flower-shaped candles. He told me that Cleopatra used to take milk baths every day and that I deserved it, too. So he bathed me in milk and shaved my legs. That was something I'll never, ever forget. It was amazing." We suspect they both milked the experience for all it was worth.
Playmate Data Sheet
Name: Kerissa Fare
Bust: 34D
Waist: 26
Hips: 33
Height: 5'8-1/2"
Weight: 115
Birth Date: 12-31-76
Birthplace: Orange County, CA.
Ambitions: Professional: To create a career in the entertainment industry. Personal: To be in the moment.
Turn-Ons: Humor, Spontaneity, Versatile mind and a nipple ring ?
Turnoffs: Laziness, when a guy guits caring about his appearance because of comfort in a relationship.
Some things I've always wanted to try: Bungee jumping & Skydiving'. I can't wait!
If I weren't a Playmate, I would be working as: a professional Pool Shark.
When I feel the need for speed, I'm: Blasting tunes in my Silver Bullet (2000 Eclipse), flying to San Fran ?
