Adorable Story #87: Cheryl Tiegs

The Supermodel from Minnesota

Cheryl Tiegs and her husband Peter Beard on the island of Turks and Caicos Islands in the West Indies, February 1982 — Photo (c) by Slim Aarons / Getty Images

Cheryl Tiegs is widely considered America’s first supermodel and the 1978 poster of her in a pink bikini found a home on the wall of just about every adolescent boy living in America in the 1970s.

Cheryl’s career started with the covers of Glamour, Seventeen and Elle. She eventually graced the covers of Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar, and became known as “The Cover Girl.”

She was the first model to appear three times on the cover of Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issues, and also made the cover of People magazine four times, as well as the cover of Time magazine three times, most notably for the “All-American Model” cover story.

Throughout her career, Cheryl Tiegs was not only a model, but also a designer, an author, businesswoman, public speaker and avid spokesperson for health and fitness, the environment and children in need.

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Table of Contents: Early years / 70s / 80s / Environment / Philanthropy/ Personal Life

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Early years

Cheryl Rae Tiegs was born on September 25th, 1947, in Breckenridge, Minnesota, to Phyllis and Theodore Tiegs (both of German descents). Her father was an auto-assembly lineman turned funeral director. She and her family moved to Alhambra, California, on 1952.

Cheryl was originally encouraged to start modeling by a friend.

Regarding the beginning of her career, Cheryl once stated:

At the time, I lived in Alhambra, right next to Pasadena. My girlfriend next door kept coming over with Seventeen magazine saying, “Cheryl, you could be a model.” I thought she was crazy. I thought models were from another planet, and it was just out of the realm of possibility.

I started very slowly. I worked part-time in high school and college. I would do anything and everything. I would do fashion shows in the back parking lot of a department store for free. I would work for $5 an hour, which was great money for me at the time. I was thrilled. I just worked hard, and I did anything and everything I could.

Then Glamour magazine saw me in a several-page spread for a bathing suit. They were in New York and said, “We want to book this girl sight unseen to go down to St. Thomas.” That was almost the first time I’d been on an airplane. I did several covers down there and began working for Glamour regularly.

Cheryl began modeling at 17 after appearing in an advertisement for Cole bathing suits published in the American teen magazine Seventeen.