in her sophomore year at high school, she received a call from a local clothing store regarding modeling work, only to discover that it was a practical joke set up by two of her classmates. however, the following year another store hired a number of high-school girls, including crawford, to work for them (including a fashion shoot). in her junior year, local photographer roger legel, whose duties included photographing a different college girl to be that week's coed in the "dekalb nite weekly", asked to take her picture for the publication; the result was crawford's first cover. the photo and positive feedback she received were enough to convince her to take up modeling. she entered the elite model management's look of the year contest at 17 and was the runner-up. elite model management in chicago then started representing her.