Model of the Week - Janice Dickinson

Janice Doreen Dickinson (born February 15, 1955) is an American model, fashion photographer, actress, author and agent. She has described herself as the first supermodel. One of the most successful models throughout the 1970s and 1980s, she expanded her profession to reality television in 2003 by judging for four cycles on America's Next Top Model. She subsequently opened her own modeling agency in 2005, which was documented as The Janice Dickinson Modeling Agency.

Janice Dickinson was born in Brooklyn, New York, to parents Ray Dickinson, of Belarusian descent, and Jenie Dickinson née Pietrzykoski, of Polish descent. She was raised in Hollywood, Florida, with two sisters, elder Alexis, a real estate agent, and younger Debbie, a model.

In the early 1970s, Dickinson moved to New York City to pursue work as a model after winning a national competition called "Miss High Fashion Model." At a time when blue-eyed blondes dominated the fashion scene, Dickinson was turned down several times by modeling agents, including Eileen Ford, who informed Dickinson she was "much too ethnic. You'll never work." She was discovered by the Fashion Photographer Jacques Silberstein when his girlfriend, Lorraine Bracco, mentioned she liked Dickinson's look. Wilhelmina became Dickinson's first agent. Her modeling pursuits led her to Paris, where her "exotic looks" secured her reputation within the European fashion industry.