Janice Dickinson

Janice Doreen Dickinson (born February 16, 1955) is an American model, television personality, and businesswoman. One of the most successful models of the 1970s and 1980s, she also served as a judge on four cycles of the reality series America's Next Top Model (2003–2006). Dickinson opened a modeling agency in 2005 which was documented on the reality series The Janice Dickinson Modeling Agency (2006–2008).

In 2007, Dickinson was a contestant on the seventh series of the British television show I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here! where she finished as runner-up. In 2008, she starred on the reality series Janice & Abbey, alongside British model Abbey Clancy. In 2010, Dickinson appeared on the fourth series of Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew, and in 2015, she appeared on Celebrity Big Brother 16.

Dickinson has released three autobiographical books: No Lifeguard on Duty (2002), Everything About Me Is Fake… And I'm Perfect (2004), and Check Please! Dating, Mating, and Extricating (2006).

Dickinson was the second daughter to Jennie Marie (née Pietrzykowski) and Samuel Ray Dickinson. Her mother was of Polish descent and her father was of Irish descent.

She was raised in Hollywood, Florida with her elder sister, Alexis, who became a real estate agent, and her younger sister, Debbie, who also became a model.

Dickinson has been open about the emotional and physical abuse she suffered as a child and teenager, and how her father used to sexually abuse one of her sisters. Speaking of her childhood with her "rageaholic pedophile" of a father, Dickinson stated, "Because I wouldn't give in and let him have sex with me, I was verbally and physically abused on a daily basis. I was told that I looked like a boy and wouldn't amount to anything."

In the early 1970s, Dickinson moved to New York City to pursue work as a model after winning a national competition called "Miss High Fashion Model." At a time when blue-eyed blondes dominated the fashion scene, Dickinson was turned down several times by modeling agents, including Eileen Ford, who informed Dickinson she was "much too ethnic. You'll never work."

She was discovered by the fashion photographer Jacques Silberstein when his girlfriend, actress Lorraine Bracco, mentioned she liked Dickinson's look. Wilhelmina Cooper became Dickinson's first agent. Her modeling pursuits led her to Paris, France, where her "exotic looks" secured her reputation within the European fashion industry.