Autostraddle Calendar Girls 2012: Maya and Brandi are August! AND HOT.

It’s August and you don’t know what you’re in for. It’s time to unveil our next Calendar ladies and you won’t be disappointed.

If you missed any previous amazing Calendar videos made by the one and only Kelli Griggs:
Kelli & Ashley are January/February, Luna & Michelle are March, Julie/Brandy and Stacee are April and May, The Real L Word‘s Francine is June, and Kali from Cali is July.

Some background:

This is Round Three of Autostraddle’s Lesbian Calendar Girls: talented, smart, charismatic, geeky and really-really-good-looking lesbianisty ladies. We make this calendar for you because you all really need to cut it out with your crushes on straight girls, this shit is out of hand, the last thing you need is 12 months of whatever Maxim & FHM come up with. REAL LIVE LESBIANS!

This year we’re going to give you a video every month and just a few teases of what the actual photos will look like, so the Calendar will be chock-full of surprises. Are you excited? WE’RE EXCITED.

Our August ladies are Maya and Brandi:

Autostraddle Lesbian Calendar Girls 2012 Robin Roemer
Maya works as content specialist for a mega-big/fancy Internet company. She holds a BA in Editorial Journalism with an English-Writing minor. She writes poetry, and is currently writing a horror movie (we like). Maya’s ethnicity is Lebanese and she lived in Beirut for five years during the civil war. Eventually her family settled in the U.S. in the south, which Maya will tell you is always fun for coming out as a lesbian! She currently lives in Denver, Colorado.

Brandi was a triple-threat for the Autostraddle Calendar shoot: model, make-up artist AND hairstylist. She’s a Cosmetology graduate of Paul Mitchell, a San Francisco native, a bartender, dancer and talented-as-hell stylist who we much appreciated having for this calendar!

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Photographer Robin Roemer & Stylist Sara Medd

Photographer Robin Roemer & Stylist Sara Medd

Here’s Robin & Sara to explain a bit more about this year’s theme:

The 2012 Autostraddle Calendar is our interpretation of the idea of a “lesbian image” without the traditional presentational definers of gender and sexual identity – when we (literally) strip away clothing, what do our naked selves communicate about who we are?

The 2011 calendar was about solo portraits of women who are brilliant, beautiful and courageous on and off camera; 2012 is about the amazing and vibrant community of queer women.

We sought to do something different this year by creating dramatic scenes and having the models interact with each other. We loved the idea of playing with identity in the form of masks, and the power that comes from choosing what to reveal and what to keep hidden.

Be prepared to see lots of skin this year in the 2012 calendar – but remember that it’s what we choose not to show that sometimes gives the most away.

We photographed a group of beautiful and diverse queer women both poolside and on various studio sets in Los Angeles. We’re excited for the monthly Behind the Scenes videos, where Autostraddlers can meet our sexy and inspiring calendar girls. (This being possible thanks to Videographer/Video Editor Kelli Griggs and Music Supervisor Stacee Coleman).

We hope you enjoy meeting the girls as much as we did!

Thanks to all of the amazing stylists, the production team members, and of course our brave and beautiful models.

We hope you love the results and look forward to purchasing your own 2012 calendar later this year in support of the project and of Autostraddle.com.

xoxo
Your devoted producers,
Robin & Sara
(Photographer & Stylist)

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So here it is!
We present the Autostraddle Calendar Girl Behind-the-Scenes video for August:


Special Note: As of December 2010, we request that the comments on Calendar Girls posts, unlike every other post on this site, be exclusively positive. These posts exist to celebrate women, so any shit-talking will get deleted. Direct concerns about the project or website as a whole can be directed to robin at autostraddle dot com or riese at autostraddle dot com!

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Robin

Robin specializes in entertainment, lifestyle and portrait photography. She's also a Creative Producer, Director of Photography and co-owner of Scheme Machine Studios LLC, her production company based in Los Angeles. Robin loves shooting for TV and film and has worked with media companies like Legendary Pictures and Viacom. She shot and directed the Pride campaign for Google called #ThisIsFamily. Robin has had the pleasure of working on national campaigns for companies like Dove and Levis, and had the unique opportunity to shoot for non-profits and initiatives such as The Black List, Save the Children, Move to End Violence, Have a Hart Day, and The Clinton Global Initiative. She is most proud of the work she has done with organizations such as The Ad Council and RAINN working on national impact campaigns. Her celebrity roster includes Cyndi Lauper, Lady Gaga, Katy Perry, The B-52s, Keri Hilson, JB Smoove, Tegan and Sara, Margaret Cho, The B-52’s, Andreja Pejic, and many more. She was there for Autostraddle’s birth and proudly served as A-Camp co-director for many years.

Robin has written 82 articles for us.

42 Comments

  1. I’m afraid my ability to say anything coherent has been quashed by the feeling of “wow. pretty” that has filled my entire consciousness. Additionally, watching this video at work is not really possible.

  5. These ladies are f*cking awesome. I love that they are just as talented as they are beautiful!! I deff drooled a little during the vid. I wanna buy a calendar for each room of my house <3

  6. I’m totally going to be a grammar nazi here…but the text should say “SHE lived in Beirut for five years”, not “SHE’S lived in Beirut for five years”.

    Also, pretty girls!

    • I’m going to one-up your grammar policing and note that they could have meant “she’s” as in “She has lived in Beirut for five years.”

      All that aside, hot hot hot.

      • actually ‘she has lived in Beirut for five years’ uses the present perfect tense, implying that she is still living there.
        one-upping your one-up

        Maya is hot, dayum

        • Damn, yep, I stand corrected.

          I’m glad we could all concur on the hotness at hand, though. :)

      • You have to read the entire sentence. It says “…for five years during the civil war.” Nina was right and I actually fixed it before you guys commented.

        (also though, I thought the same thing you two did at first.)

  7. BRANDI, babygirl you look SO fab! #dinah

    Just fucking sexy and now you’re going to have hella groupies and I won’t be able to walk anywhere witchu without a thousand LA Lezzies clamoring after your pussy.

    Disappointing.

    Maya, you look absolutely stunning.

    Also, AS, it says our “July” girls, not August (not in the title, but above the photos).

  8. MAYA!!! YOU LOOK BEYOND GALACTICALLY AMAZING!!!!! SOOOOO F’IN HOTTTT!!! I’m like burned … yer so hot yer makin me sexist!
    LOVE YOU GIRLY!! and LOVE the matching blue in yer and Brandi’s hairs. woo woo!

  10. SO BEAUTIFUL! Dang, those are some sexy, sexy women there. With blue hair! I love blue hair!

    I’m really glad you’re putting up these videos. Every single Calendar Girl so far has been fucking gorgeous, but these videos let us see how charming and fun they are too. I love all of them!

  11. “This is behind the scenes… nobody gets to see this stuff.”
    WHATWHAT! :)

    anyway…. i think i’ve finally figured out why august is my favorite month (disregarding the fact that i’m a leo haha).

  12. What a way to kick off my birthday month! Both ladies look beautiful, but I find Maya especially smokin’ hot. Call me, girl…

  14. August, you never looked so hot! Maya, the camera absolutely loves you! Oh yeah – Smokin’ Hot! Work it girl, Denver should be so proud to have someone like you representin’! ;) xoxo!

  15. That’s it, I’m calling myself a Professional Word Nerd instead of a technical writer when people ask me what my job is. \m/

  16. Why is it that none of these women live in Ireland/want to move to Ireland for people like me? Seriously, do a good thing, move continent.

  17. I’m so happy about all the positive feedback we’re getting from you guys on this project. The whole team works amazingly hard to get these girls/photos/videos/actual calendar to you and all these comments put a huge smile on my face!

    So thank you :)

  18. i was going to watch a movie but i couldn’t make up my mind and also didn’t really have time for an entire movie and then there was this video. problem solved.

  20. I don’t think the disclaimers did the hotness of the video any justice.

    Maya – Can I get yo’ numba, grrrrrl??

  23. The warning at the start made me laugh out loud. And then it was just bliss from there. They’re beautiful and sassy and smart and I love these videos so much.
    MY DAY HAS BEEN MADE.

  25. august 25 is my birthday so i win this month for realsies. august always has the hottest chicks. look at last year.

  28. MAYA YOU ARE ROCKIN’ IT!!!!!!!! I love that your phenomenally rockin’ body is perfectly complimented by your amazingly sexy, talented and delicious brain. That’s right, I said “delicious” ‘cuz I’d eat you up!!!! Can’t wait to see you next year in August!

  29. Am currently in South Korea on a one year contract, and feel very alone lady-wise. This video is very welcome and made me feel tingly all over :P

  30. totally motivated to get in shape so I can be a calender girl next year, if they take volunteers that is…

  31. Al you sexy queers totally made my month/year/era/epoch with all these super cool and sweet comments!! much love to zee Autostraddlers of the planet <3

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