The
girl next door or the
All-American girl is an
archetype of a cute, kind, unassuming, and honest
girl or
woman who lives next door, often in a romantic story. Hugh Hefner required
Playboy centerfolds to be portrayed in this specific manner, telling photographers in a 1956 memo that the "model must be in a natural setting engaged in some activity 'like reading, writing, mixing a drink'...[and]... should have a 'healthy, intelligent, American look—a young lady that looks like she might be a very efficient secretary or an undergrad at
Vassar.'"