10 Famous Models Discovered in Everyday Life

People who hunger for a career in front of a camera fantasize about a scout plucking them out of a crowd because they see star potential. For the following models, that is exactly what happened.

Some of the top models in the world — Cindy Crawford, Naomi Campbell, Gisele Bündchen, and Claudia Schiffer — all have stories about some stranger with connections noticing something special in them as the future models were just going about their everyday business.

Harper’s Bazaar rounded up the discovery stories of 50 of the world’s top models. Here are 10 that went from obscurity to the cover of magazines faster than you can “you’d better work!”

Cindy Crawford

Cindy Crawford — one of the world’s top supermodels in the 1980s and 1990s — has graced the covers of countless magazines, appeared in fashion campaigns for Versace, Calvin Klein, Ralph Lauren, DKNY, and Valentino, and starred in numerous music videos as well as the movie Fair Game. She is known for her signature beauty mark above her upper lip.

Crawford told Vanity Fair that, when she was in high school, a local photographer in her hometown of DeKalb, Illinois took some pictures of her beside the pool of her high school boyfriend. The photographer encouraged Crawford to go to Chicago and try to find an agent. She took his advice, signed with Elite, and started her professional modeling career with catalog work.

Although Crawford quit full-time modeling around the year 2000, she still appears in occasional fashion campaigns to this day.

Kate Moss

Supermodel Kate Moss is responsible for the “heroin chic” trend of size-zero models during the 1990s. She has graced the cover of British Vogue 30 times and is known for her numerous Calvin Klein campaigns and for dating Johnny Depp between 1994 and 1998.

According to Business Insider, a modeling scout named Sarah Doukas spotted 14-year-old Moss at New York’s JFK Airport. Moss and her father had been waiting on standby for three days trying to get back to England. After they finally boarded a flight, Doukas did too and approached Moss immediately after the seatbelt light went off.

Although Moss’ career started off slowly due to her height (5′ 7″), she became one of the top-paid supermodels of the 1990s. She spoofed her public image in the 2016 movie Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie.

Gisele Bündchen

Brazilian model Gisele Bündchen became the world’s highest-paid supermodel in 2004, according to Forbes. She worked as a Victoria’s Secret Angel from 1999 until 2006 and is credited with helping to end the heroin-chic modeling trend ignited by Kate Moss in the 1990s. Bündchen has graced more than 1,200 magazine covers during her career and was married to quarterback Tom Brady from 2009 to 2022.

According to The Independent, a scout discovered a teenage Bündchen eating at a McDonald’s in Sao Paulo, Brazil. She walked her first runway at age 14, modeled for Oscar de la Renta at age 16, and had strutted the catwalk for Alexander McQueen, Dolce & Gabbana, and Versace by age 17.

In 2023, reunited with Victoria’s Secret after 17 years for the company’s Icons campaign.

Claudia Schiffer

German supermodel Claudia Schiffer became one of the top supermodels of the 1990s. In addition to gracing the covers of more than 1,000 magazines and doing campaigns for Chanel and Versace, Schiffer flirted with acting, appearing in movies such as Richie Rich and Love Actually.

Michel Levaton, the CEO of Metropolitan Models, discovered Schiffer at age 17 when she was out dancing at a Düsseldorf disco. Levaton spoke with Schiffer’s parents, who agreed to his professional proposal. Before long Schiffer booked her first modeling assignment with Elle.

Now 53, Schiffer returned to the runway in September 2023 for Versace’s Spring 2024 show.

Naomi Campbell

English supermodel Naomi Campbell became the first Black woman to appear as a model on the cover of Time and Vogue France. Known for her diva behavior, Campbell hosted the modeling-competition show The Face for a few seasons.

Pennington Models scout Beth Boldt discovered Campbell when she was 15. Campbell told The Guardian that although her parents wanted her to focus on her studies, she went back on her own to visit Boldt. The scout parted Campbell’s hair down the middle, took her on the roof, and took some black-and-white photos of her in her school uniform. Before long Campbell became one of the top-five supermodels of the 1990s.

In June 2024, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London launched an exhibition featuring 100 outfits curated by Campbell that she has worn over the years.

Gigi Hadid

American model Gigi Hadid is one of the highest-paid models in the world. She is known for her high-fashion campaigns and as a spokeswoman for Maybelline.

According to Harper’s Bazaar, Guess cofounder Paul Marciano discovered Hadid as a toddler and she soon appeared in a Baby Guess campaign. As a teenager, Hadid relaunched her modeling career and appeared in her first major fashion editorial for the December 2014 issue of Harper’s Bazaar. Since then, Hadid has walked the runway for nearly every major fashion show.

Hadid has appeared as herself in numerous reality shows and competitions, including The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, Never Have I Ever, and Next in Fashion.

Christy Turlington

American supermodel Christy Turlington is best known for representing Calvin Klein’s Eternity campaign as well as her work for Maybelline.

Local photographer Dennie Cody discovered Turlington at age 14 when she was riding a horse in Miami, Florida. She quickly became one of the “Big Five” supermodels of the 1990s and appeared in campaigns for Calvin Klein, Chanel, Versace, and many more. In 2014, she made Time‘s 100 Most Influential list for her humanitarian work.

Turlington made her directorial debut with No Woman, No Cry, a 2010 documentary about women’s mental health.

Iman

Iman is a Somali-American model known for her work with designers Gianni Versace, Thierry Mugler, Calvin Klein, Donna Karan, and Yves Saint Laurent. She was married to music legend David Bowie from 1992 until his death in 2016.

Iman told Elle that American photographer Peter Beard discovered her on the streets of Nairobi, Kenya, but the encounter didn’t go down the way Beard spun it to the press. According to Iman, Beard told the press that she didn’t speak a word of English and that she was a goat herder. Iman played along with the fictionalized account, wearing a traditional dress and tribal tusk necklace to her first press conference and pretending that she was just learning to speak English.

Iman and Bowie’s daughter, Alexandria Zahra Jones, was born on August 15, 2000. Iman currently focuses on her humanitarian work with organizations such as CARE and Save the Children.

Chrissy Teigen

American model Chrissy Teigen dove into her modeling career with her debut in the 2010 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue. She is known for cohosting the series Lip Sync Battle and appearing as a judge on Bring the Funny. Teigen is married to singer-actor John Legend, with whom she has four children.

Teigen told Vegas magazine that she got discovered by a scout while she was working at a surf shop in Huntington Beach, California. Although she describes herself as “insecure” at the time and the offer “didn’t seem possible,” she went with it and became a successful model and TV personality.

In addition to modeling and TV work, Teigen has authored several cookbooks, including The New York Times bestseller Cravings: Recipes for All of the Food You Want To Eat.

Grace Jones

Jamaican-born model-actress-singer Grace Jones is known for her avant-garde music, androgynous appearance, and acting in movies such as Vamp, A View to a Kill, Conan the Destroyer, and Boomerang.

Jones was a theater student working as a go-go dancer in New York when a modeling scout discovered her. She signed with Wilhelmina Models at age 18 and moved to Paris to launch her successful modeling career. When she returned to New York, she became a fixture at Studio 54 and made hit club songs such as “Pull Up to the Bumper.”

Jones released her most recent album, Hurricane, in 2008 but continues to perform one-off shows to this day. The 2017 biographical film Grace Jones: Bloodlight and Bami features Jones returning to Jamaica to visit family and discuss how she transitioned from her humble beginnings into an international star whose career has spanned decades.