"Some girls get swept up in the lifestyle—clubbing and partying with celebrities. You can't live your life like that, though. It's fake.” Down-to-earth Australian model Gemma Ward tells it like it is. 

Gemma was born on November 3, 1987, in Perth, Australia, the second of four children to Gary and Claire Ward. She has an older sister, Sophie, and younger twin brothers, Oscar and Henry. Gemma was educated at the Presbyterian Ladies' College and Shenton College. In October 2002, in her hometown of Perth, Chris Fox spotted Gemma in the audience at the taping of the Australian TV show Search for a Supermodel. She was only there to support her friends, but Fox persuaded Gemma to enter the contest. She didn’t win, but she was signed with Vivien's Fox. David Cunningham, development manager of IMG, was sent some photos of Gemma, and he was enthralled. He asked for more photos and “as soon as I got them, I thought, 'Oh, my gosh.' I asked Vivien's if I could present her to Russell Marsh, who casts for Prada." Cunningham also asked for some natural, digital snapshots of Gemma. When they arrived, he says, "I nearly fell on the floor because you could really see her proportions. Russell came into the office the next day and I said, 'I have a great surprise for you.'"

In October, Gemma starred in Prada's runway show and for its ad campaign that season, shot by Steven Meisel, which immediately gave her a huge international presence. Additional ads for  Jil Sander, Balenciaga, Yves Saint Laurent, Burberry, Calvin Klein, Christian Dior, Dolce & Gabbana, Hermès, Jean-Paul Gaultier, Karl Lagerfeld, Louis Vuitton, Prada, Swarovski, and Valentino among others soon followed.

In September 2004, at the age of 16, Gemma graced the cover of Vogue and was also the cover model for the launch edition of Teen Vogue. Gemma was the youngest model chosen to be in a Vogue  shoot of nine It girls in the modeling world, which included fellow supermodels Daria Werbowy, Gisele Bündchen, Natalia Vodianova, and Karolina Kurkova. She has since appeared on over 30 Vogue covers worldwide, including the Australian, American, British, Japanese, and French editions. She also graced the cover of the first issue of Vogue India, photographed by Patrick Demarchelier, and the inaugural issue of Chinese Vogue in 2005.

Photographer Nick Knight thinks that the ethereal look of Gemma and of models Lily Cole, Natasha Poly, Daria Werbowy, and Lily Donaldson, is part of a new trend. It's "that time when you sense a new mood, a new wave of photography, new clothes," he says. "Gemma is one of the very, very few models who look as though they come from another dimension."

In July 2007, after she had earned an estimated $3 million over the course of a year, Gemma was named to Forbes' list of the world's 15 top-earning supermodels.

Gemma has long aspired to pursue acting. Drama and comedy are passions that she has held since she was a child. She's starred in films like The Black Balloon and The Strangers, as well as appeared in the music video for John Mayer's "Daughters." And her talents don't stop there: She has also blogged about her experience as a model. "That’s the strange thing about shows, you can feel at times that things are a little pointless... But no matter how many seasons you do, you come out of each one with a profound new lesson, a new lease on life, and you realize you have changed just a little since that first show."