Christi Shake Nude
It didn’t take long for Miss May Christi Shake, who rolled into Los Angeles a year ago, to tell us what she misses most about her hometown, Baltimore. “Everyone is really close and watches out for one another,” she says. “In a big city like LA, you don’t know whether anyone’s real or not. I’m used to being up-front and telling people how it is.” The 21-year-old is also accustomed to hell-raiser-friendly club hours back East. “Everything here closes at two a.m.,” she says. “I’m kind of glad it does, though, because then I don’t stay out too late. I also miss the crisp autumn air, the falling leaves and the smell of chimney smoke — but not the snow.”
Christi is thankful that her mother encouraged her to start modeling at the age of 13. “If I ever got lazy, she would say, ‘Come on, you have to do this!’ She still calls me every day to make sure I do everything I have to. That’s what I love about my mom — she’ll never let me slack off.” After two years of modeling school and fashion shows, Christi worked for American Dream Girl, Merry-Go-Round and Hawaiian Tropic. Now she wants to design threads, not model them. “I’m coming out with a clothing line on my website, christishake.com,” she says. “My mom is helping me with everything, and I’m starting with a catalog of pretty, funky attire.” Christi has a head for business and even studied it in college, but now she wants to try acting school. “I think it’s time to go in a new direction,” she says. “I want to be a serious actress. I like looking at my modeling pictures and seeing work I’ve done, but to see yourself on a TV show or in a movie has to be incredible.”
Miss May says it is important that she feel a spiritual connection with the lucky guy she’s dating. “It’s all about a man’s eyes,” she says. “You can tell if it’s something real within the first five minutes. One time I was shopping and I picked up a teddy bear for my boyfriend because he was out of town. When I returned home, there were flowers from him on my doorstep. That told me we were thinking of each other at the same time, so I feel like he’s connected to me.” What about other dating deal makers? “I like a nice smile,” she says. “If a guy’s teeth are mangled, how can you kiss him? Also, I have always hung out with people who are at least five years older than I am. I like learning from people’s life experiences, and guys my age just don’t have the right mentality. I want to be in love — marriage, kids, all of that. I’m in love with being in love.”
Photography by Arny Freytag