American Amanda Myers has won Savvy.com’s Is She Hot? contest for January 2008 – and advances in the first of 12 qualifying rounds for the Search for the Million Dollar Woman.

Myers, who is known on Savvy under the alias AmandaRedd, joined the ISH contest last October. She is 25-years-old and was born in Auburn, Alabama. She now lives and works as a full-time model in Birmingham, Alabama.

“I’ve been modeling for about a year, and I also act in independent films,” she said. “I overheard a photographer named Don McDowell from Southbound Photography talking about Savvy’s contest and decided to go online and check it out. I’d been going through so much with a recent identity theft that when I realised it was looking as if I had a real shot at winning, I was in shock and a state of disbelief. It only started sinking in the last couple of days in the contest. It’s been really exciting.”

So how does it feel to have a shot at a million dollars?

“It feels great, but at the same time I’m trying not to get my hopes up on that sort of thing,” she said. “I’m educated, intelligent and have tried to put forth a lot of class on this site. I want to say thank you so much to everyone who voted for me. I appreciate people voting every day. It’s hard to get people to come vote for you unless they are already on the site. Even I have been the kind of person that if someone wants me to click on something to help them out, it’s hard to get me to do it even though it takes just a second. So I really appreciate people taking time out of their day to give me some support.”

If she wins the top prize a year from now, Myers has pledged to give a chunk of her winnings to the Jefferson Alcoholics Foundation Inc. to create a place for recovering alcoholics to gather and share fellowship in Birmingham.

“I’m doing this to help other people. I think people can probably tell from one of the charities that I am trying to help out that I am an addict in recovery. I’ve had a pretty rough life up until getting sober. Being sober is a much better life,” she said.

That new lease on life is reaping rewards like the adoration of Savvy readers, who chose her to receive a photo feature and cover story.

Her advice to other contestants: “Get in touch with your fans and get all of your friends to vote. Have some sort of real motivation to win it. I’ve got two different charities behind me and that’s a huge motivation to win. There’s more than just me counting on it.”

Myers is planning a move to Los Angeles later this month, so winning Savvy’s Is She Hot? contest gives her a boost of confidence as she prepares to pursue her dreams of acting stardom.

Myers will be flown to Sydney a year from now to meet, and compete against, the other finalists in a bid to earn the title of Savvy’s Million Dollar Woman. She receives the Savvy photo and video shoot, as well as an interview and a free Titanium account from Savvy’s Search for the Million Dollar Woman Partner Solomodels.com.

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Visit http://savvy.com/profile/amandaredd and invite Amanda to become your friend if you haven’t already!