Exclusive: Hooters unveils new calendar for 2023 and celebrates 40 years in business

They don't look any older than 25.

Courtesy of Hooters 2023 Calendar

Hooters turns 40 next year, and the celebration has already begun with the launch of the new Hooters 2023 Calendar.

Now available at all Hooters stores, the calendar features 200 women who work at Hooters restaurants across the country. Featured employees were selected from thousands of applicants.

Image credit: Courtesy of Hooters 2023 Calendar

This year's cover star is 2023 Hooters schedule rookie Karter Higgins of Humble, Texas. Higgins, a political science major at the University of Houston, plans to attend law school after graduation.

“I was speechless when I found out I had done the cover,” Higgins said in a statement. "I'm so grateful and honored to be her 40th birthday cover girl."

For every Hooters calendar sold, $1 supports the Kelly Jo Dowd Breast Cancer Research Fund as part of the "Give a Hoot" fundraising efforts in October. Dowd, an original Hooters daughter and 1995 Hooters calendar cover girl, died of breast cancer in 2007. To date, the calendar has raised over $1 million.

Fundraising for breast cancer research is close to Higgins' heart.

"Supporting and giving back to breast cancer research is a big part of my life," she said. "My grandmother is currently battling her second round of breast cancer."

Image credit: Courtesy of Hooters 2023 Calendar

The center page of the 2023 calendar is 2022 Miss Hooters International, Madison Novo of Hialeah, Florida. For Novo, it's all in the family.

"Growing up, Hooters was the center of my world, especially the Hooters calendar," Novo said in a statement. "My sister has been on the Hooters Calendar six times and the Calendar Tour has always been something my family looked forward to. [It] inspired me to pursue my career in the modeling and fashion industry."

For other Hooters employees, creating the calendar takes time.

Image credit: Courtesy of Hooters 2023 Calendar

Lindsay Lynch of Merrillville, Indiana has been with Hooters for nine years, but this is the first time the new "Miss December" will be a featured month on the calendar.

"The first three years, I didn't do the calendar," Lynch said. "I made a bucket list and every year my goal was to get on the calendar. The effort I put in was noticed. I want to show that if you don't give up and keep trying, it will happen, be patient."

The first Hooters calendar was released in the fall of 1985, just two years after the first Hooters location opened in Clearwater, Florida.

In a statement, Chuck Melcher, owner and publisher of the Hooters Calendar, said, "We are proud of the history and tradition of the Hooters Calendar as it continues to be one of the best-selling calendars in the United States and is the cornerstone of the Hooters brand."