section_path: Early modeling career/European career
section_name: European career
paragraph_text: European career
  
  Melania was discovered by Slovenian fashion photographer Stane Jerko when she was sixteen, after modeling in a school-sponsored show. At the time, she had wanted to be a fashion designer rather than a model. Melania won a modeling contest with the Italian studio Cinecittà that entitled her to a movie role, but she rejected the prize after a producer sexually propositioned her. As her modeling career progressed, Melania took on an alternate spelling of her name, Melania Knauss. She traveled Europe to find modeling work. Except for a few close relatives, she did not maintain contact with anyone she knew in Slovenia. In 1992, Melania was named runner-up in the Jana Magazine Look of the Year contest, which promised its top three contestants an international modeling contract. She signed with RVR Reclame in Milan, but she left the organization a few months later.
  
  Melania spent the following years traveling Europe for modeling jobs, including one in which she portrayed the first female president of the United States in 1993. Around age 23 or 24, she made Paris her primary residence, where she lived with her roommate Victoria Silvstedt. Melania modeled for fashion houses in Paris and Milan, where in 1995 she met Metropolitan Models co-owner Paolo Zampolli, who was on a scouting trip in Europe. Zampolli, a friend of her future husband Donald Trump, became one of the few people who was involved in Melania's life for a long time.
  
  Melania was discovered by Slovenian fashion photographer Stane Jerko when she was sixteen, after modeling in a school-sponsored show. At the time, she had wanted to be a fashion designer rather than a model. Melania won a modeling contest with the Italian studio Cinecittà that entitled her to a movie role, but she rejected the prize after a producer sexually propositioned her. As her modeling career progressed, Melania took on an alternate spelling of her name, Melania Knauss. She traveled Europe to find modeling work. Except for a few close relatives, she did not maintain contact with anyone she knew in Slovenia. In 1992, Melania was named runner-up in the Jana Magazine Look of the Year contest, which promised its top three contestants an international modeling contract. She signed with RVR Reclame in Milan, but she left the organization a few months later.
  
  Melania spent the following years traveling Europe for modeling jobs, including one in which she portrayed the first female president of the United States in 1993. Around age 23 or 24, she made Paris her primary residence, where she lived with her roommate Victoria Silvstedt. Melania modeled for fashion houses in Paris and Milan, where in 1995 she met Metropolitan Models co-owner Paolo Zampolli, who was on a scouting trip in Europe. Zampolli, a friend of her future husband Donald Trump, became one of the few people who was involved in Melania's life for a long time.