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Kate Upton Crashes List of Top 10 Highest-Paid Models for First Time

Kate Upton
Kate Upton has landed on Forbes' list of the highest-paid models for the first time.Jacob Andrzejczak/Getty Images for Sports Illustrated

When Kate Upton signed with her modeling agency, people thought the agent was "crazy."

"She wasn't 'fashion' enough," the famed Ivan Bart told the New York Times in February 2012. 

The 22-year-old blond bombshell is cashing in on that commercial quality now. For the first time, Upton has landed on Forbes magazine's ranking of the highest-paid models. Believe it or not, it's the first time Upton crashed the top 10.

See Photos of the World's Highest-Paid Models of 2014

Upton tied for third place and took home a paycheck of $7 million before taxes between June 2013 and June 2014, thanks to clients such as Express clothing line and Bobbi Brown cosmetics. Upton also had a role alongside Cameron Diaz in the movie The Other Woman. One of the people who casts the famed Victoria's Secret fashion shows, Sophia Neophitou, told The Times in that same article that the company "would never use" Upton. Think she'd care to take back that statement now?

Still, Upton and the other women in the top five have room for improvement. None of them came close to bringing in the whopping $49 million salary earned by Gisele Bundchen. Mrs. Tom Brady's work with Chanel, Carolina Herrera, and H&M, as well as deals with beauty brands in her native Brazil and her own lines of lingerie and jelly sandals there, helped her bring in enough money to land at the top of the list for the eighth consecutive year. (In case you were wondering, the 34-year-old Gisele even out-earned her NFL star husband by $16 million!)

[Related: See Kate Upton's Teen Modeling Pics]

Two women who were hired by Victoria's Secret, Doutzen Kroes, 29, and Adriana Lima, 33, tied for the second spot on the list with an income of $8 million each. Kroes — who didn't make the cut last year but ranked fifth in 2012 — has contracts with L'Oréal, Emilio Pucci, and H&M. Meanwhile, Lima (last year's No. 3) also worked with Maybelline and clothiers Desigual.

Famed British beauty Kate Moss (No. 4 in 2013) earned an estimated $7 million in the past year, enough to tie with Upton in 2014. Moss's many campaigns, such as the one for Rimmel cosmetics and jeweler David Yurman, and the 40-year-old's contributions to a clothing line for Topshop, added up big.

Find out where Miranda Kerr, Karlie Kloss, Cara Delevingne, and more ranked on the list at Forbes.com.

Follow Raechal Leone Shewfelt on Twitter

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