Michelle Nunes, Miss Hooters International 2006

 

AGE 23

OCCUPATION Blackjack dealer in the Hooters Girl Party Pit at Hooters Casino Hotel in Las Vegas

EDUCATION The Ferndale, Calif. native graduated from Burbank High School and later attended the San Diego State University.

GIVE A HOOT Just one stop into Hooters four years ago and Michelle was ready to fill out an application. “As soon as I walked in I knew I wanted to work at the restaurant,” she says. "It was a combination of the slinging of the receipts on this wire line, and they have really good chocolate cake. Everyone was having such a good time, I was like "I’ve never seen a restaurant like this it must be so much fun to work here."

STIFF COMPETITION After relocating to Las Vegas in early 2006, Michelle traded serving tables for dealing blackjack. Call it home field advantage, but this brown-haired beauty, who is fluent in sign language, beat 120 Hooters’ girls from Shanghai to China to win the Miss Hooters International Swimsuit Pageant at the Aladdin in July 2006.

FAMILY MATTERS Michelle's family is “beaming with joy” over her recent win. “My grandpa [in Ferndale] carries around my picture and shows it off,” she explains. But Michelle, who has an 18 year-old brother in San Diego, says she would never take it all off: “My mom sat down and had a conversation with me … I want to be a teacher at some point in my life so that really wasn’t an option for me anyway, where I’m having little kids coming up to me asking me to sign it for their dads.”

NEW HOOTERS Nunes admits her body went through a slight “transition” after she was hired, but claims it was for her - not the restaurant. “Men don’t know what it’s like to always look in the mirror and always look from the side," she says. "That insecurity went away. It changes your perspective and makes you more confident. The tiniest things you don’t have to worry about anymore."

AWKWARD PHASE Even beauty queens have bad hair days. “It was seventh grade and my hair was really long, but it had split ends," says Michelle, who aspired to a career in and psychology as a teen. "I didn’t know how to style it so it would just dry out and get frizzy. I had a huge gap in my teeth, but the cherry on top was that during [class] pictures… I had an enormous zit on my chin!”

ADD IT UP In 2003, Nunes represented Hooters on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno - going head to head in a talent competition with Human Calculator and Guinness record holder Scott Flansburg. “I was labeled the fastest waitress in Southern California," she remembers. "I came out and used a calculator to add up a receipt from Hooters against him. During the rehearsal I beat him and he was so mad at me, thank God he won during the live taping.”