Part of a recent wave of top Brazilian models - like Gisele Bundchen, Ana Claudia Michelsand Adiana Limsa - Isabeli Fontana kickstarted her career when she was just 13-years-old and was a finalist in an Elite Model Look contest. This led to her being snapped up by a top modelling agency, which fulfilled her childhood dream.

Aged 14, Isabeli moved to the fashion capital Milan and started to work as a professional model. Her major break came when she modelled for the 1999 Victoria’s Secrets catalogue. This brought Isabeli enormous publicity, as the company were forced to breach its own policy of only employing models over 21 because the teen star was so striking.

Isabeli has revealed the fickle nature of the fashion industry, confessing that clients complained that she looked too young when she was 16, but too old when she was 17.

Since her major debut, she has appeared in commercials for Ralph Lauren and Valentino, and has graced the covers of Vogue, Elle and Marie Claire magazines. She featured in the popular Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition in 2002 and 2003. As well as becoming a familiar face on the glamorous catwalks of Milan, Paris and New York, with all the major fashion houses rushing to sign up the teenager for their new ranges.

Despite her amazing success, the blue-eyed, brown-haired starlet has said humble, saying: "I don't think of myself as pretty. I am what I am."

Modelling isn’t the only thing Isabeli got into at a young age, she has also tackled motherhood and has a child, Zion, with her ex-partner fellow model Alvaro Jacomossi. She now lives in Brazil with her husband model and actor Henri Castelli.

When she’s not working she enjoys listening to the “three R’s”: rock, reggae and rap. She prefers watching movies to getting caught up in the party circuit. Isabeli has two tattoos - one on her ankle and one on her back.

Despite her amazing success as a model, Isabeli hasn’t yet reached the level of global superstar. But armed with ambition, stunning looks and intelligence, it’s only a matter of time before that happens.