Chrissy Teigen was discovered working at a California surf shop when she was 18 years old and quickly became one of the most high-profile swimsuit models. The cameraman wandered into the Huntington Beach shop and asked to shoot some bikini pictures of Teigen, despite her co-workers telling her he came in all the time asking girls, she was different. Her dad insisted on joining her for her photo shoot on the beach even held the light reflectors. Then the young Teigen started her search for one of the most important things you need to model- an agent. On Friday the cookbook author shared some never-before-seen photos from a test shoot 15 years ago that she used to get an agency, and they are epic. Teigen explained in the caption she wore her own random clothes for the shoot and quipped, “here’s the deal I know how to model and you don’t.”

Teigen has said in the past modeling was never something she thought she could do. “I always wanted to be a teacher or wanted to do something with food,” she told The Daily Beast in 2014. “But modeling, I just never thought I could do it myself really ever. I still have trouble calling myself a model. I just never thought I was tall enough or skinny enough.”

Once she had an agent, her fears came true when she was fired from a job from Forever 21 because she was “fat.” “I actually was fired from a job, Forever 21,” she once told DuJour. “They booked me directly when I was much younger, and [when] I showed up on set, they asked me if they could take a photo. And they shoot that photo off to my agency, who then calls me as I’m sitting in the makeup chair, and they say, ‘You need to leave right now; they just said you are fat and you need to come get your measurements taken,’” Teigen said, adding, “I hate you, Forever 21. I hate you so much. Honestly, you are the worst.” But Teigen didn’t need the low-cost brand and landed a Billabong campaign, starred in her future husband John Legend’s music video, and was named 2010 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue’s “Rookie of the Year.”

Teigen starring in Legend’s video for “Stereo” was one of the biggest breaks of her career. She met her future husband on the set in 2006 and walked into his dressing room. “I walked into John’s dressing room to meet him, and he was ironing in his underwear,” she told Cosmopolitan. “I said, ‘You do your own ironing!?’ He said, ‘Of course I do.’ I gave him a hug.” After the shoot, Legend and Teigen reportedly ate at In-N-Out and then retired to the hotel. “I’m not going to lie. We hooked up,” she said. She played it cool though and said she “let him be himself for a while. “The worst thing you can do is try to lock someone like that down early on, then have them think, ‘There’s so much more out there.’ I played it cool for a long time. Never once did I ask, ‘What are we?’ Marriage was never my goal because I’ve never been very traditional. I was just happy to be with him.”