Early life and career

Raised in Jackson, Mississippi, the daughter of Debi Martinson Pearsall and Fat Bob Kelly, and the great-niece of State Rep. Rita Martinson (Madison, Mississippi),^[1] She attended junior high school at St. Andrew's in Ridgeland, Mississippi, where she played Juliet in a school production of William Shakespeare's play Romeo and Juliet^[1] At age 14, Jones, accompanied by her mother, moved from Jackson to pursue a modeling career, living in London, England, Boston, Massachusetts, Rockwall, Texas, and New York City, New York.^[1] She became a high school homecoming queen and a cheerleader at Rockwall High School.

She came to prominence initially after winning a national modeling contest sponsored by Seventeen magazine in 2000, and appearing on Live with Regis and Kathie Lee in conjunction with this.^[1] She was later a cheerleader with the New York Jets NFL football team.^[1]

Jones garnered some national attention in 2003 as a waitress on the TV reality show The Restaurant, set in New York. The following year, she earned a BBA degree in design and management from Parsons School of Design.^{[citation needed]} Jones placed in the top 15 in the 2006 Miss New York USA beauty pageant.^[2]

Model/actress

As a model, Jones has appeared in magazines including Fortune, Seventeen, Best Body,Sync, and Men's Health among others, as well as on the covers of Sound & Vision, LA Health News, Tyler Today,The New York Sportscene and the extreme sports magazine AXL. Her modeling clients have included Axe deodorant, Burger King and Coppertone sunscreen.

Jones has appeared on the Nickelodeon TV series The Naked Brothers Band, MTV2's Wonder Showzen, the soap opera, Guiding Light, WWE's SmackDown!, and as a Barker's Beauty on the CBS' game show The Price is Right, where she appeared for five weeks in April and May 2007.

Anchorwoman

Jones starred in the short lived scripted/reality hybrid series Anchorwoman,^[3] premiering on the Fox Broadcasting network August 22, 2007. Some journalists voiced outspoken criticism of her 30-day broadcast-news stunt at a small Tyler, Texas television station. The show was canceled from the network after airing one episode and moved to FOX on Demand. The debut scored 2.0 rating on fast nationals, and reported to be only 2.7 million viewers overall.^[4]

That same year, Jones worked on the Baywatch Workout video series, and appeared in the Foreplay Inc. clothing catalog.