Jourdan Dunn wants to put people straight about the story of her being “discovered.” “Everybody says I was spotted shopping in Primark,” she explains. “I wasn’t shopping. I was with my friend: She wanted to go in, I wanted to go home—and we were just mucking about in the sunglasses section.” This is an important distinction for a 16-year-old, and demonstrative of how funny and normal Jourdan is, despite the waves she is making in the fashion industry.

In 2006, an agent from Storm Management spotted Jourdan in Primark, a well-known British budget store, in the Hammersmith section of London. When approached by the scout, Jourdan knew Storm’s name from magazines and “America’s Next Top Model.” She instantly rang her receptionist mum, Dee, with whom she and her two younger brothers lived in west London, to share the news. “She was screaming, I was screaming,” Jourdan recalls.

“My mum used to come on castings with me—I was scared because there were all these models with their nice shoes and handbags,” Jordan adds. “But now if I don’t get the job, it doesn’t bother me. You can’t take it too seriously.” Only two short years later, Jourdan was the most talked-about model of the Spring/Summer 2008 fashion week, where she walked in an incredible 75 shows, including Louis Vuitton and Valentino.

Jourdan has done couture shows for Carolina Herrera, Christian Dior, and Chanel, and has also been the face of Gap and Benetton. She made her runway debut in fall 2007 in New York, walking in shows for Marc Jacobs and Polo Ralph Lauren, among others. That same year, Jourdan landed the cover of British Vogue, which named her a “new star,” and in 2008, Style.com listed her as one of the top-ten newcomers. In July 2008, Jourdan was featured on the cover of Italian Vogue in an issue devoted entirely to black models. She appeared in American Vogue the same month. Jourdan appeared on the cover of British Vogue’s November 2008 issue, and graced the cover of i-D in September 2008 and again in March 2009. At the end of a very busy 2008, Jourdan was named “Best Model of the Year” at the British Fashion Awards.

Sarah Doukas of Storm Management has described Jourdan as a “trailblazer,” adding, “I have felt that our industry has badly needed an interesting and new model star. In my opinion, Jourdan Dunn is the girl.... Like all the great models before her, she is exciting and original.... I feel, if she does have great success, she will have a big effect on the way people look at different kinds of beauty.”

For someone so young, Jourdan is also incredibly articulate and confident in discussing the fashion industry with the press. At London Fashion Week in February 2008, her comments about race made the news: “London’s not a white city,” she told the Evening Standard. “So why should our catwalks be so white?” Dunn proved her point when, the week after her comments in London, she became the first black model on Prada’s catwalk in Milan since 1997, when Naomi Campbell walked for the label.

“I go to castings and see several black and Asian girls, then I get to the show, and there’s just me and maybe one other colored face,” Jourdan says. Anonymous “fashion insiders” have stated that the industry has to bow to customers, who apparently demand white, thin, blond models. “The way people said I was stupid made me feel horrible, saying that fashion’s just a business so they need to use models who sell things,” Jourdan says.

Jourdan agrees with Naomi’s plan to establish a modeling agency that will promote different races. “I’m really ambitious. When I go back into education, I’m going to do business studies. Naomi’s idea is good; I’d do an agency for black girls—and Asian and Spanish, because there aren’t enough of them on the runway either.”

Despite the glamour and her role as a rising star in the industry, Jourdan finds it hard to be away from home and is really just a normal teenager. She says, “I miss out on getting on my brothers’ nerves, so when I get back I have to get on their nerves on purpose to catch up,” and she insists that she does her fair share of the chores when she isn’t busy jetting around on assignments. “[My brothers] keep me grounded. There have been times when I’m flying back home from somewhere and my mum will ask my brothers to pick up dog poo from the garden, and they will say, ‘Why do we have to do it? Why can’t Jourdan do it when she gets back?’ So I will fly in from New York and be picking up poo as soon as I walk through the door.”

As for the glamorous after-parties, she says, “I’m not really into after-parties. I am only 17, and I feel like I’ll be with a bunch of people not my age.”

A rising star and a totally down-to-earth girl. How refreshing!