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My dad was a theater actor, so he had an agent, and he brought me into his agency when I was maybe four years old. That was how I started. I started modeling, and it progressed from there.

I actually wanted to become a model agent, and went into what ended up becoming my first agency for a job interview. They ended up suggesting I model instead. I guess I sort of fell into it.

When I was a kid, probably 16 or 17, I got spotted by a model scout that wanted to represent me, and they sent me one modeling job, for Wall's ice cream. I did one job for them, and then a catwalk shoot for Kangol caps, and decided modeling was not for me.

It all started when I went to this model search in Charlotte when I was 18. That's when I met all these agents and realized I could do it, and I won! I met a photographer at the competition who persuaded me to sign with a different agency than the one that was offered to me. So, I started with a small agency and eventually moved up to IMG.

I never thought of a career of as a model, and it was a total surprise for me when I won the contest and became Miss Chelyabinsk. Then I started modelling in Paris.

I went to the Professional Children's School in New York, and I started modeling because I could do that until I actually figured out what I wanted to do, and it gave me the opportunity to travel.

I got an agent when I was 16 up in Vancouver, Canada.

My aunt put my cousins into a children's modelling agency, then my mum did it with us. Me and my sister got a few TV adverts, which was good pocket money. A director saw photos of me and asked me to do a short film.

An unforgettable experience happened on December 15, 1996 when I won the Supermodel contest while still in school. I was just seventeen years old then. Winning that competition was the turning point of my life. That's how I got into modeling and later started acting.

When I went to L.A., I started modeling, hoping to travel and learn from photographers. It led to auditions to do commercials.