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Modeling was something I wanted to try from a really young age.

I began modeling in N.Y. and doing commercials. That led to regional theatre and then Broadway and then movies.

I always wanted to have a family - that was one of my big wishes. And in school, I'd taken drama, and I'd always wanted to act. I did go to drama school in New York, Los Angeles and London, and I did small parts here and there, but I never really had the time. Modeling was always paying more.

I moved to New York between my junior and senior years of high school to just see what it was like, to go to a modeling agency and see how to get representation.

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.

When I came out of school I didn't even think that modeling was a job.

I modeled a little bit in Georgia growing up. I did catalogs and different things, but then when I came to L.A., I became a professional model. It sounds kind of crazy, but in L.A. was when I was able to start making a living from modeling.

I actually started modeling in Ethiopia, because that's where I grew up, and I started out by just doing little fashion shows for school, and I liked it so much that I started pursuing it.

I was real into theater, and then I tried soccer, acting and ballet. Both my parents didn't want a child-star model, so I didn't get into modeling until I was 14.