With a massive bank of followers across her social media platforms, Jennifer Stano is the kind of charismatic personality that hundreds of thousands are simply drawn to follow. In her interview with Playboy, we talk about her journey as both an influencer and a mom, her entrepreneurial moves, why removing her implants was so powerful for her, and more.
Playboy: Tell us about your background.
Jennifer: I’m originally from Westchester, New York, born and raised. Lived there until I was 24 years old and I grew up in what I consider a pretty middle class. Normal family, I had a younger brother. My mom and my dad were together until I was 13, when they got divorced. I don’t really remember being that upset, honestly, I think I handled it pretty well. Typical childhood, I went to camp in the summers.
Playboy: What about your school years?
Jennifer: I always love to go to school, and I think I love the social aspect more than the learning aspect. Middle school was a really touchy time. I loved school, but I was really flat chested and very skinny, and I used to get made fun of because all my girlfriends were blossoming and developing. And I was like, maybe I’m gonna get my next year, but it never really happened for me. Honestly, I had a really great group of girlfriends that I’m still friends with today, and I just think it was a nice time. Going into high school was really fun. I joined the varsity cheerleading team, I dated a quarterback of the football team…I mean, you can’t get any more stereotypical. I feel like some of the girls hated on me because I was younger and pretty, but I really enjoyed high school. I have very fond memories of school and my friends and all of the things that come with just being young and not many responsibilities
Playboy: What was the first thing that you dreamed of achieving that was really important to you?
Jennifer: So when I was in middle school, I really wanted to be a model. I don’t know why and I don’t know how it came to be, but maybe it was [that] back then we didn’t have social media, we had magazines. And so just seeing all these beautiful girls on the cover of magazines, I always wanted to be like them.
Playboy: And now after many years on social media, what are you passionate about today and why?
Jennifer: Seeing the highs and the lows and the ups and downs, it can really bring for people… I think creating a community, and being relatable, is something that I really try to maintain. I love being like your best friend next door type of persona. And having this community of women that have looked up to me from being a model to being out there on TV shows, then going through motherhood and becoming a mom and all of the stuff that encompasses having children, to now being with a woman and going through the change of not coming out.
I [also] removed my implants in 2019 which was a really, really big thing for me to do. And I created a company that is focused around women who have explanted or are going through mastectomies due to cancer, or even just had a baby and have mom boobs that are no longer what they used to be and need to have a boost. I love making women feel great about themselves and through my company Original Self. I feel like I’m doing for me, but it’s also for them.
Playboy: Tell us more about how your own experience led you to create Original Self.
Jennifer: I couldn’t find any bras that made me feel like I was had boobs, even the padded bras from Victoria’s Secret just didn’t do it for me, my shape’s different. I’ve had kids, I had skin, not a lot of tissue. So I really needed something. I know how to sew from my grandparents, and I decided to take things that I found out on the market and make them what I wanted. And in 2023, I founded Original Self, which is explant focused but also like I said, we also support our small bust girls.
Playboy: How has the reception been towards that? You mentioned building community earlier, so I’m guessing that this product’s probably really helped you build a community of women that really need it.
Jennifer: Yeah, it’s very new but we’re doing amazing because there’s really nothing like this on the market. Mastectomy bras have been around for such a long time. But they’ve never evolved into a modern feel. Why should women have to feel frumpy and not be able to still feel sexy? So, I’ve modernized it and made it something that somebody could feel like sexy about wearing.
I was just gonna downsize until I heard about this breast implant illness and all of the symptoms that I had. Which wasn’t even severe [but] some women are very, very sick and misdiagnosed and so I just decided to throw caution into the wind. Take my tits out, and all of my symptoms went away. I mean it was almost immediate. And I knew that I couldn’t be the only one going through what I was going through. And it’s kind of like my way of giving back.
Playboy: You also have another business with your wife, yes? ALGND?
Jennifer: So yeah, I mean there’s tons of clothes out there. I shop and revolve all the time. There’s so many styles for me. And my wife, who is still a beautiful girl and identifies as such, she just likes to dress in more androgynous or men’s clothing. For her to then find clothes that fit her, she’d have to get an extra small or small in men’s. But then even still, they just don’t quite fit a female body correctly.
So we just thought it would be so cool if we could combine both of our styles and make something that you could totally personalize for your own style. There’s girls that want to wear the big sweatpants with the tiny crop top or girls like my wife who want to wear the baggy sweatpants. Or girls like me, I’m a crop top and leggings kind of girl. You can mix and match and totally create this unique style based on what we’re designing.
Playboy: So you’ve been a presence in a personality on social media for a while. When did you start wanting to move towards that?
Jennifer: I was on the Internet as early as MySpace days, and even then I had a lot of girls that would ask me questions. Influencer wasn’t even a term then. And Instagram came along, I think maybe 2011. But my thing before even Instagram was a blog. I had moved from my hometown in Westchester New York to Beverly Hills 90210 and I was engaged in this very big sort of lifestyle. And I just wanted to share all of the tips and tricks of the inside crowd of the celebrities. I would go to get hair done and Cameron Diaz would be sitting next to me. I’d go food shopping at Whole Foods and Halle Berry was there. Living in Beverly Hills was like a dream, and I felt so cool and grateful to be in that scene that I wanted to share it. And so that’s where my blog came from. All of my plastic surgery tips that doctors they went to where I got my injections.
It just blew up. And I was in a very fortunate situation. Mom and Pops companies would message me and be like, “Hey, I have a baby product coming out. I’d love to send it to you to try.” And I would try it and I love it. And I would organically share it because I wanted to help support them. I wasn’t charging for any of this, Influencer was not a term. We weren’t being paid to advertise. This was all before.
When I started to get wind that companies were paying people to support them or to advertise or post, that’s when I started doing that, and then I would donate those funds to a few women that I knew had children and really could use the money. Once that evolved, it became more of like a business where I treated myself as a business, and my likeness and my word, which have earned the trust of these women and followers over so many years. And that’s how I kind of became a content creator/influencer/public figure.
Playboy: You did some TV shows too.
Jennifer: Yeah, I had done a couple of TV shows. One was The Spin Crowd, which was produced by Kim Kardashian. Another one was called Secret Lives of Trophy Wives, which was on TLC and aired, one episode. And even from there, a lot of women saw me and people just in general. And that’s also where my following started to skyrocket. A lot of people still to this day will say, I followed you and I found you on that show, and it’s just so cool. I’m so grateful they still care to follow me.
Playboy: You’re a pre-influencer influencer. I’m curious how you feel about the influencer space today? I’m curious how you feel about functioning in today’s version of it.
Jennifer: I think I have sort of a mixed feel. I feel like anybody and their mother can be an influencer. So it’s kind of lost the novelty. But I am super grateful that people care about the things I use and trust my recommendations and want to click on my links and do help support me. I’m grateful that I get to work from home or anywhere. I decide to go and travel and I could post my outfit in a mirror and be this is what I’m wearing and I’m making money. So that’s kind of like my hate relationship with social media and influencing, but it’s opened up a lot of doors for me.
It’s fun. It is work though. You do have to post and stay up to date with things. And I think being on the older side of the generation that’s coming in now that’s content, creating and influencing, [I notice] they have it down so fast in their videos. They’re different. you really do have to watch and relearn in a sense: What are they doing? And how do I need to adapt?
