Twenty-four-year-old Wareham resident Katelyn Whalen describes herself as shy, so when Onset firefighter and Hot Rod enthusiast David Mark offered her a modeling gig looking pretty next to his car, she didn't exactly jump into a bikini and oil up.

Mark, who also owns Ocean Graphics on Cranberry Highway, entered the photo of her with his 1957 Chevy Bel-Air in a contest with national magazine Popular Hot Rodding.

"I was a nervous wreck," said Whalen, works as a waitress at the Breakfast Nook. " I was just working one day, and Dave asked me."

Whalen and Mark are members of the hot rod club, "Shamrods," so when he needed a model for the contest, Katelyn immediately came to mind.

"They had an announcement that they were looking for pictures of cars with pretty girls," said Mark. "At first, she didn't want to do it."

But Whalen eventually decided to go for it.

True to her "shy" nature, Whalen wore a demure, yet flattering, dress, while other winning models went with the skimpy bikini look.

Noting that her true passion is animals, Whalen says this will likely be her first and only modeling job. She's currently taking classes to be a veterinary technician while working as a receptionist at a veterinarian's office.

"I'm just so proud that the car made the magazine," she said.

Whalen is featured in the March issue, which is on newsstands now, alongside women from far flung places such as North Dakota and Germany.

Not bad for a small town gal.