Laetitia in the seventies and eighties.

Laetitia grew up in Normandy, France with her parents and a two years older brother Jean-Baptiste. They lived at the countryside with few neighbors nearby.  Creative right from the start, Laetitia loved to draw and write stories in school. But she was also a dreamer, paying frequent visits to a world of her own making. "I was a daydreamer, absentminded and distracted. My teachers told me I wasn't as smart as my brother. I was already a bit insecure and stubborn as a mule, so when I heard this, I withdrew even further into my private little world, my bubble." Her bubble burst around the age of twelve, when her little sister, Marie-Ange was born. " I forced myself to grow up for her because I felt she was my responsibility, she admits "I just wasn't ready to grow up before then. The idea that I could be a role model for Marie-Ange was a great revelation for me."

"Boys never approached me. I remember being alone, watching them from a distance, too afraid to say anything. I really didn't consider myself very interesting to them." 

The proof that Laetitia is a well educated woman. At school in Normandy.

Montfort-sur-Risle1984-1985 she is nr two from left, second row.*

Another time at school, difficult to say what the boy behind her is doing.

It was around the age of fifteen that she discovered just how wrong she was. It was then that she was elected Miss Lumio, which is the little Corsican village where her father was born. Laetitia says: "I used to imagine myself as a strong woman, one who could do what she wants, whose life is not organized by others. I had never imagined being a model because my parents never told me that I was more beautiful than anyone else. They never suggested that I should do this work, or even that I could do it. I did not think that anything unusual would happen to me."  There she was wrong again. (red. am)*

In 1993 things was to be changed. On a beach near Lumio, Corsica she was on vacation with her family. She was playing with her sister when some unknown people approached. They had been watching  from a distance. Dominique was suspicious of their attention and asked what they wanted. I think the answer gave him and his oldest daughter something to think about. They were from  Madison Models (a booker and a photographer) and saw i Laetitia that day what thousand of people see in her today. Dominique got a business card from them and after some thinking and discussion, he and Laetitia arrived at a meeting with Vincent Peter, founder of Madison Models. (this was several mounts after the meeting on the beach)

Vincent Peter said: "She arrived around lunchtime with her father, wearing blue jeans, a T-shirt, an no makeup. It took about half a second for me to see that she had something rare and very special. It's indescribable, that instant recognition that you have something  fantastic on your hands.  Laetitia was not yet fifteen and shy and, I would say, a little tense, but only because she was in unfamiliar territory. She new nothing about the modelling or fashion world. It was something that just happened to her."

Later Vincent Peter presented Laetitia for Odile Sarron from French Elle. Odile had the same reaction as Vincent Peter. This was how it started. Now the whole word knows.

During this one meeting on a beach in Corsica, Laetitia experienced what so many people dreams of ...being known. And all she dreamt of was being a school teacher (red am)

The picture to left was sent to me from Danita fore this page, THANKS!