A Field Guide To Emily Ratajkowski

Our curiosity about Emily Ratajkowski grows everyday. Why did Treats! magazine decide to release pictures of her first? What makes her so special? How did this model end up on the Nickelodeon sitcom "iCarly"? Friends, the answers may not come quickly, but they will come.

Emily Ratajkowski was born on April 27, 1992 somewhere in America (possibly Brooklyn, NY). Her father is a painter, and she says that his influence helped her grow to love art, especially photography. She also notes that her family traveled to Europe frequently when she was a child, and she saw a lot of beautiful topless women walking around on beaches. She remembers, "They were confident and sexy, and I think that I was drawn to that mentality."

Even though Emily is best known for her role on "iCarly," she was already a fashion and lingerie model before appearing on Nickelodeon. Truth be told, she was only on "iCarly" twice playing Tasha, the girlfriend of a somewhat dorky character named Gibby. Prior to this role, Emily had small parts in a short film called "Andrew's Alteration" and an independent film called "A Year and a Day" back in 2004 and 2005 respectively.

We started paying attention to Emily not very long ago--and we've been doing it with gusto--but she's a rather prolific model. In the course of our research, we realized that we've seen a bunch of her stuff before without realizing who we were looking at. Oh sure, it's understandable that we wouldn't recognize a woman modeling lingerie for Frederick's of Hollywood, or bikinis for Surfline, but you'd think that we would learn the name of the woman who appeared in the first two issues of Treats! magazine! How silly of us. To repent for our mistakes, we've included many of these pictures in the gallery below.

Sadly, we don't have any more details about Emily Ratajkowski's life. She's a mysterious girl, and like most rising stars, she's keeping things rather secretive online. Still, if the rest of 2012 plays out with this much Emily-centric excitement, she'll be a big shot in no time. For now, we wish her a happy early birthday and much love.

· Be sure to check out her Twitter (twitter.com) · Her ModelMayhem page (modelmayhem.com) · And read the interview she did with Treats! via The Today Experience (thetodayexperience.com)