Since 2004, she has been the highest-paid model in the world and the sixteenth richest woman in the entertainment industry with an estimated $70 million fortune. Bündchen speaks Portuguese as her native language. in 1993, a then-13-year-old Bündchen joined a modeling course with her sisters Patrícia and Gabriela at her mother’s insistence. She was subsequently selected for a national contest, Elite Look of the Year, in which she placed second – Claudia Menezes, from Bahia, took first place. Rolling Stone declared her “The Most Beautiful Girl in the World” in 2000 and Vanity Fair published an article titled. Also that year “Time magazine says she’s “one of the few runway models whom straight men can name.” She appeared on the cover of Vogue in July, November and December 1999. She has been featured both in the Pirelli Calendar 2001 and 2006 and in broader market publications such as TIME, Vanity Fair, Forbes, Newsweek and Veja, more than 600 magazine covers throughout the world.
