Marisa Miller from Santa Cruz, California, is a supermodel. She is noteworthy for her love of sports, surfing in particular. Early life Miller has two younger sisters. Miller attended high school at Aptos High and Monte Vista Christian School. She considered herself a tomboy growing up, with mostly male friends and little awareness of anything girly. Out of shyness, she often wore large t-shirts to hide her body and would get fully dressed just to go to the trash-can while at the beach. Miller was first "discovered" at age sixteen walking through a San Francisco café by two Italian modeling agents. After talking to her mother, she was on a plane to Italy with her mother a few months later, despite her "shy and conservative" personality. During the 1990s, fashion modelling was going through a phase of the androgynous look, and Marisa thought herself too curvy and too short to fit that trend. Miller gained attention in 1997 when she appeared nude in the first issue of Perfect 10 magazine. Although she came in third behind Ashley Degenford and Monica Hansen in Perfect 10 magazine's first annual model search, she was repeatedly showcased in following issues, including the covers of the Winter 1998 and August/September 1999 editions, as well as a reprint for the Fall 2004 edition cover. In 2001 Miller moved from a start as an amateur magazine model to high-profile mainstream work, after being introduced to fashion photographer Mario Testino, leading to editorials for both the American and Italian editions of Vogue. By 2002 Miller was working for Victoria's Secret and appearing in the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue, in which she appeared in every issue from 2002 to 2008.