Miranda May Kerr (born 20 April 1983) is an Australian model best known as one of the Victoria's Secret Angels since mid-2007. She is the first Australian to participate in the Victoria's Secret campaign and also represents Australian fashion chain David Jones. Kerr began modeling in the fashion industry when she was 13, starting at Chaay's Modelling Agency, and soon after winning a 1997 Australian nationwide model search hosted by Dolly magazine and Impulse fragrances.Kerr was born in Sydney, and raised in the small town of Gunnedah, New South Wales. Her parents are Therese and John Kerr, and she has a younger brother named Matthew (born 1985). In an interview, Kerr stated she is of English, French and Scottish descent. During her childhood, Kerr "raced motorbikes and rode horses on her grandmother's farm." She describes her early life in the Australian countryside as "very grounding ... there wasn't any pretentiousness and no one really cared what you were wearing. You could just be you." Her family moved to Brisbane to allow Kerr and her brother to experience city life, where she graduated from All Hallows' School in 2000. Kerr originally went on to study Nutrition and Health Psychology before pursuing modeling.
At age 13, Kerr entered and won the 1997 annual Dolly Magazine/Impulse Model Competition. She was flown to Sydney a week before her 14th birthday to shoot for the magazine. Upon Kerr's win, local media expressed "concerned outrage" at her young age. The controversy raised concerns about the glorification of young girls within the fashion, beauty, and entertainment industries. Some conservative media outlets claimed her Dolly shoot (including images of a 14-year-old Kerr in bathing suits) constituted a form of child pornography. Of the press, Kerr said: "In the media at the time they were trying to cling on to anything remotely to do with paedophilia. Dolly is a magazine for teenage girls, not for old men. And I was fully clothed! Doing a winter shoot! They just made something out of nothing."Kerr signed to Chic Management's Sydney division. She received considerable commercial exposure after a series of beachwear ads predominantly for Australian surf chain Billabong, in which Kerr modeled surf brands Tigerlily, Roxy, Billabong Girls, and One Teaspoon. This increased her profile in the Australian and Asian markets, after which Kerr relocated to New York.
Once in New York, Kerr had a multitude of runway appearances and then signed with NEXT Model Management in early 2004. From there, she was booked for runway and print campaigns for major labels, including Alex Perry, Baby Phat, Lisa Ho, Voodoo Dolls, Levi's, Bettina Liano, Nicola Finetti, L.A.M.B., Heatherette, Betsey Johnson, Trelise Cooper, Jets, John Richmond, Blumarine Swimwear, Neiman Marcus, Seafolly Swimwear, Anna Molinari, Rock and Republic, Roberto Cavalli, and Ober Jeans
Kerr was also booked for print in magazines such as Elle, Australian Vogue and Harper's Bazaar, and was featured in television advertisements for brands like Portmans, Bonds, and Veet.
In early 2006, Kerr appeared in the finale episode of the TV show Project Runway, modeling clothes for contestant Daniel Vosovic's final collection. She was the first woman to walk down the catwalk.
In 2006, Kerr broke into the United States market when she signed a lucrative cosmetics contract with Maybelline New York. The campaign ran in a series of internationally sold women's beauty magazines, including Cosmopolitan, CLEO, and Elle, and was eventually featured in Victoria's Secret catalogues.She (along with several other Victoria's Secret and Next agency models) was also featured in a music video for the American hip-hop single "Number One" by artists Kanye West and Pharrell.
Following her success with Maybelline, Kerr became the first Australian model to be offered a contract with Victoria's Secret in 2007, replacing Gisele Bündchen. Upon her acceptance, she became the first ever Australian Victoria's Secret Angel joining the stable of models already signed to the lingerie giant, including Alessandra Ambrosio, Karolína Kurková, Adriana Lima, Selita Ebanks, Izabel Goulart, and Heidi Klum. Before becoming an Angel in 2007, Kerr was already picked to become the successor of Alessandra Ambrosio as the face of PINK in 2006. Kerr's popularity continued to increase as one of the globally recognized Angels when she appeared in the Victoria's Secret 2006, 2007, 2008, and 2009 televised runway shows, which aired on four continents.
In 2007, Kerr had signed on as the face of Californian fashion retailer Arden B. After debuting in their Spring and Summer ad campaigns, Kerr returned for their Fall 2007 campaign, shot by fashion photographer Diego Uchitel Following her modeling success with Victoria's Secret, Kerr made a small guest appearance in the CBS sitcom How I Met Your Mother alongside fellow Angels: Adriana Lima, Marisa Miller, Alessandra Ambrosio, Heidi Klum, and Selita Ebanks. She also became the new face of Clinique Happy and signed a lucrative six-figure deal to be the new face of Australian department store David Jones, replacing model Megan Gale. In 2008, having earned an estimated $3.5 million in the past 12 months, Forbes placed Kerr tenth in the list of the world's top-earning models.
Since 2009, Kerr has been featured on the cover of Rolling Stone Australia magazine, Harper's Bazaar Australia, CS magazine, Sunday Magazine, Tempo magazine Turkey, Cosmopolitan magazine Spain and GQ Germany magazine.Kerr has also been featured in the Pirelli Calendar 2010 and editorials for XOXO Spring/Summer 2009 collection, V Magazine, Vogue Japan, Russian Vogue, Glamour magazine Germany, Numero Magazine, US Vogue and Harper's Bazaar Australia.
Kerr also made an appearance in the spring/summer runway show for Balenciaga, her first designer fashion show, aside from Victoria's Secret, since 2007.She was chosen to be in the 2010 Pirelli Calendar photographed by Terry Richardson in Bahia, Brazil. The calendar was launched that January.In 2010, Kerr walked for design company Prada for their Fall 2010 collection in Milan Fashion Week alongside fellow Angels Doutzen Kroes and Alessandra Ambrosio and subsequently got booked for the Prada Fall/Winter-campaign alongside Angela Lindvall. Kerr also received an Ad Campaign for top fashion label, Jil Sander.
