The latest in a series of intimate moments with beautiful women — in their own homes, in their own clothes (most of them, anyway), and at their invitation. Come on in.

For someone who is on 90210 — there’s a new one, and that’s perfectly fine that you didn’t know that — 26-year-old Gillian Zinser is a lot more like the “normal” women you see regularly on MeInMyPlace.com. She has one of those Tumblrs and she looks like she came out of the DVD extras of Dazed and Confused and she travels a lot for no apparent reason and she talks about things like “the responsibility of artists.” And yet: “I’ve never considered myself hip or in the know or cool by any means.” Well you should know her soon, not as your teenage cousin’s favorite hip surfer girl so much as one of those hippies in the new Oliver Stone movie about pot and guns and NAVY Seals. And because she invited us over. —The Editors

I found myself running in a lot of circles. I was willing to pick up anything from pencils to cameras to scripts to paintbrushes and make anything with them. But as soon as I graduated, I went to Kenya to photograph these slums of Kibera. And I met someone who convinced me to move to L.A. the minute I got back. So I went from the slums of Kibera to 90210. That wasn’t exactly the path I imagined. I didn’t come out here to be a part of a soap opera. I’m very, very appreciative of this job, but I think it was more of a learning platform. And from here I’d like to get back to the reason I wanted to be a part of storytelling to begin with.
Oliver Stone asked me to do a role in his film, Savages, and I have a tiny debut, but it was fun to be a part of his world for it. And I look back on all these experiences that I’ve had that maybe didn’t make so much sense at the time, and now I understand them as everything that I needed to give me the tools and experience to be able to now tell the stories that I want to be a part of.
I spent the winter down in Costa Rica learning how to surf. I’m partial to warm water — to not having to wear a wet suit — and I ride a long board, so it’s a very different sport than what you see my character do on the show.
No, I’m a water temperature snob. And the water here is insanely cold. It’s far colder than you would imagine. It’s a succulent collection back there. I mostly just like cactus because I don’t know how to care for plants — or water them, really. I’m a bad gardener.
T-shirts. Old t-shirts. And my mom’s old sundresses from the 60s, definitely.
I think everyone’s home is a pretty good reflection of what goes on inside their heads.

Gallery Links:
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x144 | BTS: Me in My Place with Gillian Zinser