30 Gorgeous Portraits of a Very Young Brooke Shields in the 1980s

Brooke Christa Shields (born May 31, 1965) is an American actress. A child model starting at the age of 11 months, Shields gained widespread notoriety at age 12 for her leading role in Louis Malle’s film Pretty Baby (1978), in which she appeared in nude scenes shot when she was 11 years old. In the 1980s, she became a symbol of youthful beauty and often appeared in teen magazines, beauty campaigns, and on television.

Brooke became a household name after modeling for Calvin Klein jeans in 1980. The ad’s tagline — “You want to know what comes between me and my Calvins? Nothing.” — was provocative and iconic, sparking both controversy and massive popularity. She was already an established model by her teens, appearing on the cover of Vogue at age 14.

She won the People’s Choice Award in the category of Favorite Young Performer in four consecutive years from 1981 to 1984. During this same period, she starred in the USPHS PSA sponsored by the American Lung Association as an initiative that VIPs should become examples and advocates of non-smoking.

By the age of 16, Shields had become one of the most recognizable faces in the United States, because of her dual career as a provocative fashion model and child actress. Time magazine reported in its February 9, 1981, cover story that her day rate as a model was $10,000 (equivalent to $28,000 in today). In 1983, Shields appeared on the cover of the September issue of Paris Vogue, the October and November issues of American Vogue and the December edition of Italian Vogue. During that period Shields became a regular at New York City’s nightclub Studio 54.

After making a minor appearance in The Muppets Take Manhattan, Shields took a career hiatus to focus on her academic studies. She enrolled at Princeton University in the fall of 1983 and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in French literature in 1987. She was a member of the Princeton Triangle Club and the Cap and Gown Club.

Shields played the eponymous lead in the 1989 movie Brenda Starr, which had been shot in 1986 for an intended 1987 release but was held up for years over legal problems due to the rights to the comic strip and demands from Shields' mother that she receive top-billing in the picture, which co-starred Timothy Dalton. When the film was finally released in 1993, it was roasted by critics and bombed at the box office.

Below is a collection of 30 gorgeous portraits of a very young and beautiful Brooke Shields in the 1980s: