Jovovich attended public schools in Los Angeles, becoming fluent in English in three months. In school, she was teased by classmates for coming from the Soviet Union: "I was called a commie and a Russian spy. I was accepted into the crowd." At age 12, Jovovich left seventh grade to focus on modeling, which she had started at age nine. She has said she was rebellious during her early teens, engaging in drug use, shopping-mall vandalism, and credit-card fraud. In 1994, she became a naturalized U.S. citizen at the age of 19.