At a young age, Bar Refaeli mustered up enormous amounts of attention for her stunning beauty and unbelievable ability to make men swoon. She has appeared on several magazine covers and there are very few retail catalogs out there that haven't requested her services. Basically, she's famous for being hot.

Bar Refaeli was born on June 4, 1985, in a rural region of Israel. She was raised on a horse ranch, but her countryside origins never inhibited her imagination. She started modeling before she could even walk and talk. At eight months old, Bar was already doing commercials. After starting her career before she was even a 1-year-old, Bar had to undergo that traumatic experience that every child fears: getting braces. Of course, getting braces quickly derailed her modeling career. So for over three years, Bar resorted back to her normal life -- a life void of modeling. But when the braces came off in 1997, Bar wasted no time getting right back into the industry. At the tender age of 11, she bursted back onto the modeling scene and has been there ever since. She then appeared in numerous advertisements and infomercials in Israel.

Refaeli began her modeling career before the age of one. By the age of fifteen she was featured in campaigns for the fashion brands Castro and Pilpel, also starring in a commercial for Milki. Refaeli won the title "Model of The Year" in a beauty contest in 2000 and 2001. She was also chosen to be the home model of Renuar fashion network and appeared in their summer 2002 and winter 2003 catalogues. She was cast for fashion production abroad, among them Dim, and appeared in the French ELLE magazine. She is the first Israeli model to be featured in Sports Illustrated magazine; the same picture was later published on the cover of Maxim. She appeared on the cover of the March 2006 issue of GQ Italy. She was in the March 2007 issue of Sports Illustrated in a swimsuit and posed with the band Aerosmith as well. Refaeli will star in an English language film named Session directed by Haim Buzaglo.. Bar appeared in a September 2007 Paris-Match issue where she was interviewed by reporter Caroline Mangez. The six-page article had many pictures and a great interesting interview about Bar's life in Israel, her family and her work. She also appeared on the cover of Tatler magazine for the October 2007 issue.
This is clearly Bar Rafaeli’s year. The Israeli supermodel has been voted the third “hottest” woman in the world by men’s mag Maxim.

She was beaten to the top position on Maxim’s list by US actresses Megan Fox and Olivia Wilde.

Under her picture, which was published in Maxim yesterday, the editors wrote: “If there’s any evidence that the Middle East is a land of beauty and wonder – not just unending turbulence – Bar is it.”

Amazing what a pretty face can do. Politicians, professors, entrepreneurs and charitable institutions can speak about this endlessly, but Rafaeli flashes a smile in a picture and the world suddenly gets it.

Strange that they say the Middle East, however, and not Israel.

What a ride it’s been for Rafaeli. Still only 23, she’s risen to the top of her field, dates Leonardo DiCaprio on and off (she met him at a party in Las Vegas when she was 20), and was the cover girl for Sport’s Illustrated’s 2009 swimsuit edition – the one that matters according to industry buffs.