Those eyes. Soft, brown and inviting. Lonny Chin's eyes seem to hide nothing. There's a disarming openness in her gaze that relaxes strangers and warms friends. Lonny wants to be liked, and she succeeds. Her magic potion is empathy. Thoughtful and sensitive, she gives her all to brief encounters, fe
...eling another's happiness or pain, understanding, giving her friendship willingly. It's a gift not easily refused.
'Lonny spent the first six years of her life in Liverpool. Her father is Chinese / Jamaican, her mother Welsh / Swedish. She had barely perfected her Liverpudlian accent when her family boarded a liner bound for the Canadian shore. The seven-day journey was not pleasant. "The entire family was seasick," Lonny recalls. To top it off, their destination was Quebec, where the preferred tongue was French.
Lonny learned enough French to get her through the third grade; then it was moving time again. In a series of hops, the family went westward: London, Ontario; Calgary, Alberta; and finally, Vancouver, British Columbia. Lonny enjoyed the nomadic life. "I'm the type of person who's very inquisitive. I've always wanted to see and experience everything. I once forced a boyfriend to take me to a strip show, just because I'd never seen one. And, once, when I got curious about bikers, I went to visit one of the places where they hung out, to watch them. Of course, I didn't know at the time that you just don't do that!"
A few months ago, Lonny moved to Los Angeles, where she is currently pursuing a career as a model. Very successfully. "I was lucky enough to be chosen as the first video Playmate on both the cassette and the disc versions that will be sold all over the world," she says. "We did some filming in the studio and a lot in Vancouver, especially in the store where I used to work. It was fun and a good way of letting people get to know me as a person."
At first, the pace of life in Los Angeles - the hard-core capitalism and the city-wide meat market - intimidated Lonny. "I was very nervous when I arrived," she admits. "But now, I've opened up. I have more confidence in myself; I've found that facing new situations makes you stronger. If you want to be a success, you have to deal with change." For a sensitive and shy girl from Liverpool, Lonny sounds like a survivor.
