Playboy Magazine has opted not to choose one of the previous year's Playmates of the Month to be crowned Playmate of the Year anymore, but they're not tossing the tradition away entirely. Instead, the publication will be recognizing the Playmates of the Year to "celebrate all twelve diverse Playmates of the month” from the previous year. This move is in an effort to have "a more inclusive celebration" of all the Playmate cover stars, rather than choosing just one to honour.
Since 1960, The Playmate of the Year award has been given to the best Playmate of the Month from the year prior. For forty years, one lucky Playmate has been honoured with the title, including stars like Jenny McCarthy and Anna Nicole Smith. However, the magazine felt that it was time for a change.
“The point of this change was to not exclude anyone," a rep for the magazine said. "Instead of honouring one Playmate, they’re honouring all 12 diverse Playmates of the Year for each of their unique contributions to the brand. They had an exceptional group of impressive diverse women join the Playboy family as Playmates for 2019. These women are accomplished advocates and admirable personalities in their own right. We wanted to raise the group up as a whole and felt that there was a need to commemorate each of them one more time.” Due to this change, the last true Playmate of the Year was Jordan Emanuel in 2019.