Dark hair, single eyelids, and flat face with freckles – Lyu Yan’s unique traits would be considered unattractive by Chinese standards 10 years ago.

Lyu was repeatedly told that she was ugly and could never be considered a "beauty". Her unique traits kept her apart from other girls with the usual, popular aesthetics.

But the girl, who was considered to be her family’s "ugly duckling", was spotted by French modeling scouts in Beijing, who asked her to go to Paris, turning her life upside down.

Lyu Yan, born in 1981 in a small mining village in De’an county, Jiangxi province, decided to go to France despite that she could not speak French or English at that time.

Her decision has led her to become one of the biggest names in the fashion world and the first supermodel to represent the beauty of Chinese women in the 21st Century.