When you ask most ladies who their pin up inspirations are, the usual suspects begin to emerge:

• Marilyn Monroe
• Bettie Page
• Betty Grable
• Jayne Mansfield
• Elizabeth Taylor

...and so on and so forth. Occasionally you get someone who names someone slightly different - the occasional Doris Day or Jean Harlow girl comes to mind.

You can tell a lot about someone based on their pin up inspiration. Marilyn Monroe women tend to go for the classic styles that accentuate the hourglass shape, they are also more "fun" in their photos and ooze just the right amount of sex appeal. Bettie Page women tend to be more rebellious, more likely to have tattoos and are more likely to embrace animal prints and fierce styles. Betty Grable ladies know there is more to 40's hair than two victory rolls cemented on your head.

Seeing as the pin up lifestyle aims to replicate a style from a roughly 25-year time period, it's hard to find an actress or socialite of the time who does not inspire a modern pin up in some way. You are not the first to claim Grace Kelly as your pin up inspiration.

As a film student and a lifelong cinephile raised by the daughter of a period piece costumer, I've watched these women from the time I was small. Though I knew I always wanted to embody that style and attitude of glamour, I knew I wanted to be my own person.

Enter the modern retro scene in 2009 - I was thrilled to learn that there were pretty, independent ladies who drank and swore and weren't at all demure while still looking amazing. I finally found people I belonged with!

...except I felt that this "new normal" was still a bit unlike myself. There was still something about it that I was unsure of, and it had to do with the fact that it felt that there was very little I could do to "stand out".

O my sisters, there was a solution yet!

So I went out and found my own pin up inspirations outside of the 1940s-60's.

Below are my three biggest, though extremely unorthodox pin up inspirations:

ANIME

When I was in high school oogling over modern pin ups and practicing victory rolls in secret, I was also fangirling over anime (in secret). I love anime. I love the cuteness of the characters, I love the way Japanese culture contributes to film and television, and I love the uniqueness of it all.

Anime and pin up are actually a lot alike. For starters, cute girls rule the scene with strange colored hair styled in crazy, gravity-defying ways. There are boobies. Anime characters come in all shapes and sizes, and have a wide variety of stories. Strong women dominate anime.

On top of all that, there are usually a lot of kickass outfits in Anime. Cosplay is fun too and there are many period appropriate anime characters to cosplay as!

How I incorporate anime into my pin up look: Anime characters are usually drawn in varying extremes with the most common being large, expressive eyes and fantastical hair. Simply put, I do my makeup in a way that really makes my eyes POP by putting the only shimmer on my face on my eyes or by drastically highlighting them with loud colors. I tend to style my hair with more tease than style - if I can get my bangs higher than Conan O' Brien's pompadour, we are just starting to get in business.

DRAG QUEENS

Like most mostly straight women, I enjoy a good drag show.

I love drag queens and everything they stand for. Drag queens are all about fun, theatrics, and CONFIDENCE. What I love most about drag queens and drag shows however is their sense of style and the amount of time and effort that goes into some of the costumes.

I'm kind of like the dragon from The Hobbit (in theaters December 13th!) - I'm voiced by Benedict Cumberbatch and I like shiny things. Drag queens more than any other group work shiny things. Only at a drag show have I seen gold from head to toe pulled off without looking like an extra in a 60's Bond film. How do they do it? Confidence.

How drag queens inspire my pin up look: Work it, girl. That gold lurex jumpsuit? Wear it for all it's worth and don't let that be your only statement - play up your hair, wear your nighttime makeup during the day and OWN every step you take. People are going to give you crap for going to the grocery store dressed like a pin up, so why not go all the way? Ditch that headscarf updo, unless it's three times its normal size with a garden growing out of the top that happens to be made of glitter. You got this. CONFIDENCE.

MICK JAGGER

"Okay Sydney, okay", you say as you stare at me like I'm not only high but am eagerly offering you a toke of whatever you think I am smoking "I get anime, there's boobs and girls. I get drag queens, because they're fabulous. How the hell do you manage to find pin up inspiration in Mick Jagger?"

Settle down, now.

First of all, in that middle photograph Jagger is clearly wearing a sample of the Deadly Dames Goth Collection Cigarette pants - they totally made them in red before they decided black is always more goth.

Second: Jagger is an attitude. Mick Jagger is the international symbol of eternal, dangerous, sexy youth. Say what you want about Bettie Page being "fierce" - and she was for her era -  but she is tame compared to today's standards. Bettie is too tame for me if I am truly desiring to channel fierceness during a shoot. I also can't pose seriously for the life of me - I just start moving and I pray that out of the 200 snaps the photog takes, 5 turn out decent. I do what feels good in the moment - that's Jagger Swagger.

So how is this pin up inspiration?: Again, it's an attitude. The rest of the world thinks you're a bit odd for dressing like you're from the time of their grandmother - OWN IT. Let loose and dance even though you know you can't. Have fun, mix patterns with stripes. Enjoy yourself to the point of that hair set unfurling. Why? Because fun and wild is sexy and pin up is all about sexy, yes?

So there you have it: my unorthodox pin up inspirations. Now I turn it over to you - what are YOUR unorthodox pin up inspirations? If you don't have any, now is a good time to get some

...because how else do you stand out in a world that is based upon a fixed look and an unchanging era of days gone by?