Bundchen was born in Horizontina, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil on July 20, 1980, a fraternal twin to sister Patricia (Gisele came out first). Though she would grow up to be a well-rounded 5’-11” with dark, piercing blue eyes and wavy brown hair, Bundchen wasn’t always a knockout. As a girl, her schoolmates made fun of her tall, thin physique, sometimes calling her “Somaliana” (a person from Somalia) or “Olivia Palito” (Olive Oyl from Popeye fame). Growing up under such harsh scrutiny made Bundchen sad, but she found ways to keep herself occupied, namely volleyball. For a time, Bundchen wanted become a professional, and she was on her way, but fate, as fate does, had different plans.
At 13, Bundchen, at her mother’s insistence, joined a Dilson Stein mannequin course to correct her posture. In May 1994, Stein took a busload of young girls—including Bundchen—to São Paulo to see the big city and be scouted by executives from Elite Modeling Agency. One executive took special interest in Bunchen and asked if she wanted to be a model. Bundchen at first refused, but the next year she found herself entering the “Elite Look Modeling Competition”, in which she placed second overall. It was the first of many steps she took in a career she initially did not seek.
Over the objections of her father, Bundchen moved to São Paulo at 14, and lived in an apartment crammed with other models. Bundchen finished her second year of high school in the city while looking for modeling work. In what was considered a controversial move, the young model switched from Elite to IMG Model Management at the behest of Monica Monteiro, an agent who personally attended to Bundchen, giving her rides to school and letting her stay at her home when the need arose. In return, Bundchen answered phones and filed papers for Moneiro. In December, 1996, Bundchen went to New York to work for Calvin Klein and L’Oreal, staying only a couple weeks. The set up was similar to São Paulo: she was crammed into an apartment with several other young models. Unable to speak English, however, Bundchen remained quiet with her housemates, and for a laugh, they taught her to say “Good morning, asshole” to the doorman. Needless to say, she was furious upon learning its meaning.
Bundchen spent the next few years walking the catwalk for numerous designers, including Ralph Lauren, Versace and Chloe, until hitting the big time in 1999 when her image graced all the important magazine covers, advertisements and fashion shows at the same time. In November of that year, Bundchen, then only 19, appeared alongside modeling luminaries Naomi Campbell, Claudia Schiffer and others on the cover of the millennium edition of Vogue. The magazine later named Bundchen “Model of the Year” at the Vogue Fashion Awards. The skinny, awkward girl from Brazil had transformed virtually overnight into one of the world’s most famous and widely recognized models, all before the age of 20.
Being the world’s most beautiful girl does have its advantages: Bundchen threw out the ceremonial first pitch at a Boston Red Sox-Oakland A’s game (it went over the catcher’s head); and a steady routine of consuming Big Macs, smoking Parliament cigarettes and dancing till dawn has done nothing to diminish Bundchen’s incredible figure. But her career is not without its downsides: Bundchen was publicly harassed by the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), who criticized the supermodel for wearing a fur on the catwalk. Bundchen later apologized to the radical organization, stating that she doesn’t wear fur in her private life and is a consummate animal lover. True to form, PETA claimed to never having received such an apologize.
With nothing left to conquer in the modeling world, Bundchen shifted her focus a film career, starting with “Taxi” (2004), a remake of the French action-comedy of the same name. Starring alongside Queen Latifah and Jimmy Fallon, Bundchen played Vanessa, the leader of a gang of beautiful Brazilian bank robbers being pursued by Fallon and Latifah. Meanwhile, Bundchen upped her public profile with a long-term romance with actor Leonardo DiCaprio. The hot couple became engaged sometime in 2004, thus causing dismay to millions of lascivious fans across the world.