One of the world’s most popular supermodels Jessica Stam, a girl from the numerous fashion magazines covers, was born on April 18th, 19 years ago.

Raised in religious family with six brothers, she had never dreamed of a super star career and was planning to become a dentist. But one day, coming back from Canadian Wonderland, she just happened to be in the right place at the right time and met her future godmother Michèle Miller, who owns International Model Management in Barrie. Miller managed to see a great potential in this badly-permed girl and ran after her with the offer. “I didn’t know what modelling was. Boys ignored me,” said Jessica in her interview to timesonline.co.uk. “I never thought I was gorgeous.”

Miller took her in New York, where Jessica tried herself as a model having won the first contest she participated - the 2002 contest of New York City.

The same year, after months of hard work, Michele Miller showed off a young star to Paris. That's where Jessica met Fashion Photographer 'Mario Testiono' who chose her for Mui Mui photo shot. German Vogue was her next step into the fashion world.

Jessica believes that Steven Meisel played a pivotal role in her life. Before the meeting with him, she was a usual model struggling on her road to the top; Meisel made her a superstar. Following his advices she kept dying her hair almost every week, changing her image with every photo shot.

Every fashion magazine was hunting to get her on its cover: Numero, I.D., Spur, Italian Vogue (6 times), Toronto fashion magazine, Flare – just a minor part of her fashion walk of fame.

Yet, success hasn't spoiled her, she is still a casual schoolgirl who studies during her free time between catwalks: “With modelling, you are judged on your looks. It’s easy to take that personally, but you have to realise that it’s only your appearance that’s being judged, not you as a whole. If you didn’t, you’d be destroyed.”