Cheryl Tiegs became a household name nearly five decades ago, rising to fame as one of America’s very first supermodels. Her now-legendary pink bikini poster, released 46 years ago, helped define an era and turned her into a global pop-culture icon almost overnight. At a time when modeling was far removed from today’s influencer-driven industry, Tiegs represented a new kind of beauty—athletic, sun-kissed, and effortlessly confident.

Her career quickly soared. Tiegs appeared on the covers of Sports Illustrated, Vogue, Time, and numerous other major publications, becoming one of the most recognizable faces in fashion. Yet her success wasn’t the result of a carefully engineered plan. She has often noted that her entry into modeling came almost by accident, after a friend suggested she had the right look. Early jobs paid little, mostly small fashion shows, but everything changed when she landed a feature in Glamour magazine at just 17. From that moment on, her career accelerated at a remarkable pace.

Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, Tiegs became synonymous with the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue, appearing multiple times and helping establish the publication as a cultural phenomenon. Decades later, her impact was still being acknowledged—she was named to Men’s Health magazine’s list of the “100 Hottest Women of All Time” in 2012, long after her peak modeling years.