2) By age 17, Whitney’s talent was apparent but so was her beauty. She began modeling in the early 1980s, after she was spotted by a photographer who saw her perform with her mom at Carnegie Hall in New York. She was one of the first African-American models to appear on the cover of Seventeen Magazine. Whitney’s girl-next-door appeal also won her modeling assignments with such respected magazine titles as Glamour, Cosmopolitan, and Young Miss.