“I could have sworn that to be a model I’d have to be all girly and cutesy and here you guys are doing me up like a boy. Who would have thought?” says Amanda Moore in a 1999 models.com photo spread.

And who would have thought that the openly gay Florida high school basketball star--who broke her nose twice and never entertained dreams of modeling--would someday find herself adorning the cover of Italian Vogue and taking to the catwalk for Gucci?

“Girly” and “cutesy” aren’t the best descriptors for this tomboy’s version of feminine beauty. But with lanky limbs, chiseled features and striking good looks, Moore looks like she was destined for supermodel stature. Perhaps destiny is how she managed to live out the clichéd girlhood fantasy of being “discovered” without even trying.

When she was 17, Moore took a friend to an open call at a local modeling agency and caught the eye of the staff. She found herself in the spotlight unexpectedly, and they insisted she go to Orlando for a scouting event. She hadn’t planned on going, but then an injured leg sidelined her in time to ditch the basketball court and suit up for a different sort of competition.

Every fairy tale has its minor setback, and Moore’s carriage broke down on the way to the ball when her pickup truck got a flat tire. She decided to get herself to the convention and worry about her truck later, figuring she’d sleep in the truck if she couldn’t drive it back to the family home later that night. But once the trolling agents spied her, they were tripping over their own feet as they scrambled to sign her. They put her up in style that night, and she slept in the comfort of a hotel bed instead of cramming herself into the cab of her pickup.

Before she even left Orlando, Moore had already settled on a contract with New York modeling agency Next. Soon thereafter found herself being “done up like a boy” for the models.com spread, one of her first shoots.

More specifically, like an army boy.