From Sevnica to the White House: A 16 yr-old Melania Trump's Early Modelling Career

Apr 26
3 min read

She grew up in a two-room Communist-era apartment, was told she lacked "charm" by the photographer who discovered her, and flew journalists to Paris on a private jet when almost nobody knew her name.

Teen Melania Trump modeling in black-and-white photos. Background with soft bokeh lights. Text: "A 16 yr-old Melania Trump's Early Modelling Career."

A Small Town, a Quiet Girl

The city of Sevnica sits in a river valley in central Slovenia, home to roughly 5,000 people and, for most of its history, famous for little beyond its salami. It was here, in April 1970, that Melanija Knavs was born — the second daughter of Viktor Knavs, a driver at the state-run Jutranka textile factory, and Amalija Ulčnik, a seamstress at the same plant. The family lived in a modest two-room apartment allocated to them through the factory's housing scheme, later moving to a slightly larger flat nearby after Melania was born.

The setting was unremarkable by design. Slovenia was still part of Yugoslavia, governed under the populist autocracy of Marshal Josip Tito — a system some locals later described as "socialism lite." Viktor was a member of the Communist Party, though neighbours who knew him say he joined more out of pragmatic convenience than genuine conviction. That calculation apparently paid off: his daughter was baptised Catholic, as were many in the family, with relatively little official friction.

Childhood friends remember Melania as a serious, introspective girl "She needed her space," recalled Diana Kosar, a close childhood friend. "She read or was thinking about things, and then she drew." Kosar remembers her as creative, especially when it came to sewing — Melania would sketch dress designs for dolls before sewing them, something she'd picked up watching her mother at work. "She was good at everything that was creative. We didn't draw the dresses, only sewed, but she drew them first. They were very good sketches."

Those who knew her kept reaching for the same word: ordinary. Intelligent, reserved, occasionally immodest, but ordinary. What set her apart, friends say, was an absolute certainty that Sevnica wasn't going to be the end of her story. "She always knew she would leave Sevnica because it was too small for her," Kosar said. "She wanted to go to Ljubljana. That was her first goal."

The Photographer Who Spotted Her — and Lost Interest

The encounter that changed everything happened when Melania was around 16. Stane Jerko, one of Slovenia's most respected fashion photographers, noticed a tall teenager with long legs and a striking figure. By his own account, his professional instinct kicked in immediately.

"My eye of a professional photographer always looking for girls to photograph, for fashion, for ads, so I quickly noticed this tall girl, slender with a good figure, long legs," Jerko told Univision in an interview at his home in Ljubljana.

He photographed her, free of charge, producing the portfolio shots that would launch her career. Friends who worked in fashion saw the images and made contact. That following autumn, Melania enrolled in a modelling course and began appearing in local fashion magazines. For a brief moment, Jerko thought he'd discovered someone exceptional.

Then his enthusiasm faded.

"Her exterior was very good to be an excellent model, but she lacked energy, a certain charm that if you have, you transmit it through your eyes, through your personality. If you have something that, shall we say, comes from the heart, it shows in the photo," he said.

He also noted something that still puzzles him decades later: Melania never contacted him to thank him for the photographs, and never asked for a single copy — even though he'd taken them entirely for free. "She never contacted me and thanked me because I discovered her," he said. Whether that reflects coolness, single-mindedness, or something else entirely remains open to interpretation. Jerko himself seems unsure.