Twelve years ago Natalia Vodianova was a poor girl selling fruit on the street in Russia. Today she's a supermodel. Michelle Zhang reports.Natalia Vodianova looks tired. The Russian supermodel was in Shanghai to promote the lingerie collection she personally designed for French fashion brand Etam. The night before, she was in London for a party thrown by her good friend, designer Diane von Furstenberg.

"I didn't sleep and I'm jet-lagged," she said in an interview, looking at me with her pale aquamarine eyes.

"But I'm fully 'armored' now -- it helps me to light myself up and feel the strength."

She was referring to the outfit she was wearing: a black and white striped Givenchy shoulder blazer -- a must-have item this season according to Harper's Bazaar UK, an edgy top by upcoming Australian design duo Sass and Bide and a pair of tight-fitting black pants, matched with a pair of super-cool Givenchy ankle boots.

"I love black and white and I love stripes," she said. "Givenchy is one of my favorite brands and Riccardo Tisci (for Givenchy) is a very good friend of mine."

At the age of 28, Vodianova, or "Supernova" as her friends nicknamed her, seems to have it all: beauty, fame and fortune.

Hers is also an extraordinary story of luck and rags-to-riches: she was a poor girl selling vegetables on the street in Russia to help support her mother and two sisters, one of them handicapped.

But, as luck or destiny would have it, she was spotted by a scout.

The rest is history for Supernova -- a heart-stopping model, mother of three and now a philanthropist.

She is one of the most recognizable and respected models in today's fashion world.

Ever since she moved from Nizhny Novgorod, the fourth largest city in Russia, to Paris when she was 17 to "seek a bright future" in the modeling industry, she has achieved formidable success as a runway, editorial and advertising campaign model.

She has worked closely with some of the world's most acclaimed designers, including Yves Saint Laurent, Marc Jacobs and Calvin Klein, graced the covers of numerous fashion magazines worldwide, and appeared in countless editorial spreads.

She appeared in Annie Leibovitz's sensational shot for Vogue US, "Alice in Wonderland," in December 2003.

The shot features Vodianova dressed up as Alice, with an array of famous designers, ranging from Karl Lagerfeld to Marc Jacobs, as other characters from the Lewis Carroll story.

The Russian beauty, known for her stunning features and long limbs, is arguably the most highly paid face of Calvin Klein.

She is also the brand ambassador for French beauty house Guerlain and high-street fashion brand Etam. Most recently, she has appeared, together with Christy Turlington and Karen Elson, in Louis Vuitton's latest advertising campaign for autumn/winter 2010.

Forbes magazine once listed the 28-year-old as the world's No. 7 highest paid model with an estimated annual income of US$5.5 million.

"I grew up in an extremely poor environment but I always knew that was not it (my life)," she told me.

"Deep inside, there is always this little voice that guides me. It is really an incredible thing in my life -- I'm very in touch with my inner voice. It helps me to find out what to do, what's next and where I'm going."

The soft-spoken supermodel spoke candidly about her early years: she was reared in a poor family. When she was little, her father abandoned the family, including her mother and two younger sisters, one of whom has cerebral palsy.

To make the ends meet, her mother worked four jobs. Vodianova used to sell fruits with her mother on the street, until she was discovered at the age of 16 by a scouting agent from Paris.

"I had never thought I'd be a model but it just happened like that," she recalled. "I never considered myself beautiful."

I asked if she'd call it luck.

She shook her head: "I don't think it has anything to do with luck. It's fate, or rather, a combination of fate and will power.

A hard worker

"I have to be ready, before the opportunities come," she carried on, firmly. "You have to work very hard to be ready. So when the opportunity comes, you give your best to spot it, and say, 'yes, that's great, thank you very much'."

Although she is married to multibillionaire Justin Trevor Berkeley Portman, a British property heir, and now is a mother of three, Vodianova still works extremely hard in her career.

Nowadays, she has gradually "retired" from the catwalk and shifted her career into new territories such as design, film and philanthropy.

The lingerie collection that she has designed for Etam, for example, features sensual, feminine pieces, some of which are versatile enough to be converted into an evening gown.

"My inspirations come from those female cinema icons, such as Audrey Hepburn, Marilyn Monroe and Brigitte Bardot," she said.

"Each of them has a distinctive style. Before I design, I'd like to think about what kind of lingerie pieces they'd wear."

Her motherland, Russia, also serves as a source of inspirations. "You will find some cute doll-like pieces inspired by the Russian matryoshka dolls and some typical Russian floral patterns," she said.

In 2005, Vodianova founded the Naked Heart Foundation, a philanthropic organization that builds playgrounds for children across Russia, especially those in rural areas. She was inspired to set up the charity after a trip back to Russia with her son Lucas when she found there were no suitable playgrounds.

"We believe that play is a necessity, not a luxury, and that every child should be given a secure environment to play," she said on the foundation's official website: www.nakedheart.org/.

The organization built its first play park in 2006 in Vodianova's hometown, Nizhny Novgorod. Since then, it has funded 40 play facilities in 30 Russian cities and towns.

The beautiful woman with a big heart has attributed her success -- and her ability to maintain a balance between a family life and a hectic career -- to her supportive husband.

The couple met at a dinner party on the top of the Pompidou Center in Paris, nine months after Vodianova left Russia for Paris to model. They wed and she got pregnant when she was 19. She lost a lot of weight after giving birth to Lucas, their first son, and her career skyrocked. Now they have three children, Lucas, age eight, daughter Neva, age four, and younger son Victor, age two.

"My family is my priority," she said. "We always travel with children. In seven years, my husband and I have only taken one holiday without them.

"I have learned to balance myself by saying 'no' a lot," she continued. "I have realized that I can't do everything. Sometimes I have to say 'no' and believe that there will be more opportunities coming."

To keep fit, she cycles, swims, goes horseback riding, skis and does "a little bit" of yoga from time to time. "I'm very active, hard working, mature and impatient," she giggled. "Well, I'd call myself a perfectionist."

On her third trip to Shanghai, Vodianova still knows very little about the city. She was first brought to Shanghai by Calvin Klein for the China Fashion Award in 2006.

Last year, she came as the brand ambassador for a Guerlain event, and this time for Etam. She told me all the trips were "quite short, quite intense," and she was looking forward to visiting the Russia Pavilion at World Expo Shanghai.

"I'm so busy," she said, not complaining. "At the moment, I'm still young, and I have all the strength and energy to discover myself.

"People always ask me what I'm most proud of, and I'd say it's the last thing I've done that made me most proud," she went on. "It's always like that. Right now, my success is too fast moving. I don't really have the chance, or the time, to sit down and digest what I have done in the last month."

But she has a general plan for herself in 10 years -- perhaps she was guided by her magical inner voice.

"I'm sure I will be more settled," she said. "Hopefully by then, I would have more time for my children and for myself, and I would have more time to enjoy myself and my success."