With each model’s journey to the top starting differently, we at Talent Management are always curious to find out how the greats kick started their modelling careers.

Luckily for our inquisitive lot, top French model Aurélie Claudel recently told Modelinia exactly how she got into modelling, and unsurprisingly, it started with the help of a good modelling agency.

It all started when she was approached in the Jardin des Plantes in Paris by Dawn Wolfe at just 13. “This women came up to me and was like ‘Are you a model?’ and I was just like no and I just thought she was weird. I don’t know why she asked me that question, because I didn’t live in Paris, I lived in a village, you know? I never thought that I could be a model, especially because everyone in school was making fun of me because I was skinny and taller. It was just like I was the ugly duckling,” she told Modelinia.

“She said she was working at Ford Agency at the time and I took her card and off she goes and off I go, and I’m still upset. And a month later I was in my girlfriend’s house and she had like one of those teenager magazines and I saw an article with a picture of that women I met. And at the time she was representing Naomi Campbell, so I was like ‘Oh, wait a minute, this is for real’.

“So then I told my Mom and I got my first job on the way up to go meet the agency. This little Korean guy was like ‘Are you with Ford?’ I was like yeah, and I got a job right away. That’s really how it started. It was one of those off the record jobs they were paying cash. For me it was so much money. It was; they were paying 5000 franks, which was about like $800. I was like that’s a lot of money for a 13 year-old. I was so happy.”