With her impossibly high cheekbones, catlike features, and incredible figure, May Andersen is one of Denmark’s hottest celebrities, biggest models, and the notorious life and soul of every party. “We have just three or four hours of darkness in the summer,” she says of Denmark. “You can stay outside all day and night because it’s always light. Sleep? You don’t.”

May was born Lykke May Andersen on June 16, 1982, in Copenhagen and sometimes works under the booking name Lykke May. As a child she moved around quite a bit with her mom, eventually settling in the North Shore by the beach, near a town called Gilleleje, which, she jokes, is “not an aisle in Ikea!”

Originally, May dreamed of being a singer, and she took vocal lessons until a chance meeting dramatically altered her career path. A photographer spotted her on a Copenhagen street when she was 13 years old and introduced her to Elite Model Management. She started to model at 16 and debuted on the runway at Valentino haute couture in Paris in 1998. She landed her first major cover, for Italian Marie Claire, when she was 17. May then did campaigns for BCBG, Gianfranco Ferré, Miu Miu, Philosophy di Alberta Ferretti, Prada, and Valentino, and she appeared on the cover of Italian Glamour.

The year May turned 18, she relocated to New York and continued to model for the big names, houses, and magazines, including an advertisement for Victoria’s Secret. In 2003 and 2004, she posed for the Sports Illustrated swimsuit edition, and she appeared in the 2007 Lavazza calendar. May promoted Sports Illustrated’s 40th-anniversary issue by doing the talk-show rounds, appearing on “Good Morning America,” CNBC’s “The Big Idea,” and “The Late Late Show with Craig Kilborn.” High-profile romances also have kept her in and out of the media.

Life hasn’t all been easy sailing for May. In 2000, the car she was riding in was hit by a garbage truck on Sixth Avenue in Manhattan. She broke her collarbone and wrist, and sustained injuries to her pelvis. Thankfully, she made a complete recovery and successfully sued the City of New York for compensation.

In 2006, May turned her attention to design, partnering with some longtime friends, designer Gabriel Nigro and graphic designer Jesper Skade, to create a line of jeans called Chick with Guns. They launched the first pair, a spray-on-skinny cut called the “Mayday,” in 2007, and the brand quickly gained a cult following in Denmark, where, May explains, “...you walk down the street and notice that everyone is gorgeous.”