Former Nickelodeon child star Madisyn Shipman is embracing new facets of herself now that she joined Playboy’s creator platform.
“I have always felt a sense of repression in terms of my sexuality and showing my body,” Shipman, 20, told Fox News Digital in an interview published on Friday, September 29. “And I think a lot of that is because I grew up on a Nickelodeon show. You’re taught that you can’t wear crop tops, you can’t show too much skin [and] you’ve got to be presented as a little girl constantly. And whenever that ends, I had a little bit of an identity crisis because I didn’t know who I was.”
Shipman rose to fame playing Kenzie Bell on Nickelodeon’s Game Shakers for three seasons. After the show wrapped in 2019, Shipman swore she would never join a paid platform like Playboy or OnlyFans. (Playboy launched its creator-driven platform in 2021.)
“I always said, especially to my fans, that I was never going to join a paid creator platform because I didn’t want to show my body,” she confessed to the outlet. “That was the biggest thing. That’s not how my goals align. So I made this clear to Playboy, and they said, ‘You don’t have to do that.’”
While Shipman has decided to not bare it all on the platform, she is willing to pose in bikinis or lingerie. “Now, I’m reclaiming my power. I’m reclaiming my sexuality,” she said. “I’m doing what makes me happy.”
Shipman continued: “I think it’s so empowering to be able to pose like that and feel great in my skin. I love my body, so being able to do this in such a respected area and get so much love and support from it is so rewarding.”
Shipman has seen some “odd requests” come through the platform, but she set clear boundaries over what she’s comfortable sharing with subscribers.
“I don’t entertain the ones that I’m not comfortable with just because there’s no sense in me stepping out of who I am as a person,” she said. “And I’m very open and honest about that. I’m like, ‘Look, I totally respect you, but that’s just not who I am. I’m not comfortable with that, but maybe we can work something else out.’”
The former child star further gushed that her fans “love” her new enterprise, which is also proving to be a “lucrative” way to self-fund her music career and cover living expenses.
“I have my own house [and] I’m fully taken care of. I’ve got so much financial freedom and I truly wouldn’t be in this position if it wasn’t for Playboy,” Shipman told Fox.
