The 33-year-old Dutch supermodel has walked the catwalk for every major house, including the likes of Prada, Valentino and Fendi and is a former Victoria's Secret Angel, but when she applied to a local modelling agency at the age of 18 she didn't tell a single soul.
Talking to ES Magazine, Doutzen said: "If it [modelling] didn't work out, I didn't want anyone to know I'd tried."
However, when her first shoot was published in a magazine, Doutzen was eager to share her achievement with her friends and she showed it off with more than a little false modesty.
She added: "I brought the magazine to school, and I opened it and was like, 'Oh! What a coincidence!' "
When Doutzen isn't walking the runway, she's an animal activist and has a passion to help orangutans and wants to use her platform and voice to save the endangered ape species.
Doutzen - who has two children, Phyllon, seven, and Myllena, four said: "My dream was always to go to Borneo to work with orangutans. As a kid I never really liked going to zoos. There was something in me that meant I knew I wanted to work with animals, nature and environmental protection."