6. Joan Smalls
Age: 24. Agency: IMG. Provenance: Puerto Rico.

Joan was ranked number one model in the world by Models.com earlier this year. It’s kind of a big deal. And what a coincidence that it was the same year she finally scored her first Vogue cover (and for Italia, the girl is no slouch!) as well as her second and third (Australia, Turkey). She’s a Vogue US favorite who makes worthwhile pit-stops at editions like Italia, Paris, and UK, and shoots with the best of the best photographers. However, Joan lacks the consistent page numbers of her peers and appears in multi-girl features more often than not: two things keeping her out of the top five.