My desire to be an actor or a model precedes my identity.
Acting wasn't even in my world at all. My oldest sister worked at 'Glamour' magazine and said I should model, but I had no interest.
I was a pin-up girl. I did it for 30 years and, quite frankly, it gets a bit boring.
I started modeling when I was 13 or 14, I think.
I started modeling at the age of 14, when I was in Std 9.
I started modelling from the age of 16, and within three years, I was bored and decided to shift to films. But I love modelling because it gave me independence.
Actually, I never really thought I would be a model. I never knew a lot about fashion and magazines, and I never paid attention to it. I was a young girl, though.
Throughout the years I've been working as a model, I've gathered lots of information on the process of creating fashion without even trying.
Modeling is the world that I feel most welcome in.
I rarely had the opportunity to work as a full time model or to pursue a professional career in modelling, because school was always my priority.
During the four years I had spent in New York, I had achieved top status as a model and had worked for the best photographers and designers in the world. I had grown used to hearing that I was exotic and high-fashion.
When I was little, I never wanted to be a model or really thought of doing this job. I'm from a small city, Yongzhou Hunan in the south of China - not a big place for fashion.
I'm photographed a lot walking my dog, not the most glamourous!
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 started modelling in college, but it was part time since I was kind of nerdy and wanted to finish my studies.
On 'America's Next Top Model,' I mentor girls on television. When that TV goes off, I actually mentor other girls in the modeling industry - girls that have not been on 'Top Model,' but who appear in 'Vogue' worldwide.
I started modeling at 14. It's simple. You respond to what the photographer wants and wear other people's ideas. I got bored with it, though, so I went to university.
There was really no friendship in modeling, though a certain amount of warmth comes from running into models you know on shoots, because you end up in so many unfamiliar places, from Alaska to Africa.
I loved my career as a model, and that evolved into being an actress.
I've done modeling since I was 18, but it didn't take off until I moved to Los Angeles. Modeling has always been something I've been really good at, and has been something that's helped pay bills.
You're in a bathing suit pretty much all year round working for Victoria's Secret. There's so many shoots, and we're always in lingerie, so you kinda always have to be prepared and ready.
I started modeling before '1992,' and I had already done Calvin Klein and Target and Gap and Diesel, Reebok, so I had been modeling for a little bit.
I went to New York to be a model. That's all I wanted to be.
And I only do what I do in life, which is model.
I don't want to be known as the guy who always takes his shirt off... I've done a lot of photo shoots lately for the press coming up with 'Immortals' and 'Breaking Dawn,' and every photographer wants to get the topless shot. We've really had to be choosy and not do that for every magazine. I've actually been trying to keep my clothes on more.
