Issue link: http://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/769056
S P O R T I N G C L A S S I C S • 49 B rittany Boddington is the host of The Boddington Experience and Petersen's Hunting Adventures. She is a writer for several different outdoor publications, a popular member of the online hunting community, and the daughter of famed outdoor journalist Craig Boddington. Frequent Sporting Classics contributor Gayne Young recently caught up with Brittany to ask about her past, her present, and her future. Take us on the road from model to outdoor journalist and personality. How did this all come about? I started modeling at a young age. My friend in high school had booked a modeling job and needed a ride. I drove her to the event and they were short one girl for the show, so they hired me on the spot and I've been working ever since. I only started hunting after high school and fell in love with the outdoors. I couldn't stand to wait a whole year between hunts in order to go with my dad on one of his trips, so I started going alone. I worked five jobs between trips to afford to go again, and once I could buy the plane ticket, I would drop everything and go for as long as I could. Eventually a magazine asked me to write an article about one of my adventures. That was the first time I realized that I enjoyed telling my stories to the world. It was at that point that I decided to make my hunting into a career. Let's pretend I just met you for the first time and asked what you did for a living. How would you respond? I'm a hunter. If they ask more questions I will elaborate, but at the core I will always be simply a hunter. I also point out that I make a living by selling articles about my adventures and hosting outdoor television shows. In 2012 you became the first female ever to grace the cover of Petersen's Hunting. Tell us how that honor came about and what it means to you and to other female hunters. Being on the cover of Petersen's Hunting's annual gear issue was a great honor. To me, it meant that the magazine stood behind me and my accomplishments. In 2012 the number of female hunters in the outdoor Profiles by Gayne c. younG Brittany Boddington has secrets she has only told to us. industry was small, and there were very few of us doing tough hunts—even fewer doing these hunts alone. I felt validated and grateful for the opportunity that the cover presented. You said publicly that you dislike the separation between male and female hunters, maintaining that "we are all just hunters." And while that's certainly the ideal way to look at it, women in hunting are treated far differently than their male counterparts. Especially online. Why do you think this is? I dislike being categorized as a female hunter because the term is sometimes used to put us into a lesser category, as if being female puts us at a disadvantage. For the record, let me say that I am proud to be a huntress and to represent other female hunters. I understand that men are generally stronger physically and that does give them some advantages, but women are quieter, smaller, more nimble in the woods, and generally better shooters. I would say we have the advantage. Why do you think female hunters are so viciously attacked online, and what can all hunters—male and female—do to stop this