Josephine Skriver-Karlsen was born 14 April 1993 and is a Danish model known for her work with Victoria’s Secret.
She was born and raised in Copenhagen, Denmark. Her mother is an IT analyst and her father is a marine biologist. Her mother is a lesbian and her father is gay; Skriver and her younger brother, Oliver, were conceived through IVF.
At the age of 15, Skriver was discovered and approached about her modeling potential while on a trip to New York with her soccer team. Shortly thereafter, she was signed by Unique Models, an international modeling agency based in Copenhagen. She was consequently approached by other agencies outside of Denmark, but decided to wait to stay in school. After finishing school, she began pursuing a modeling career in 2011.
Skriver’s debut season was Fall/Winter 2011, during which she opened for Alberta Ferretti and closed for Prada. That season, she also walked for many other prominent designers, like Calvin Klein, Rag & Bone, Gucci, Dolce & Gabbana, Givenchy, Yves Saint Laurent, Valentino, Alexander McQueen, Balenciaga, DKNY and Christian Dior.
Throughout her career, she has done advertisement campaigns for brands such as H&M, Dior, Gucci, Bulgari, DKNY, Michael Kors, Balmain, MAC Cosmetics, Armani Exchange, Karen Millen, Max Mara, Topten, Tommy Hilfiger, Yves Saint Laurent Beauty, Caleres, Tom Ford, Shu Uemura, Andrew Marc, G-Shock, Victoria’s Secret and she has been on the cover of and featured in editorials of numerous magazines such as Marie Claire, Vanity Fair, V magazine, Interview, L’Officiel, Vs., W, Allure, Italian, German, Russian, Chinese, Japanese, Australian, Brazilian, Spanish and American Vogue as well as Danish, Italian, Brazilian, Swedish, French Elle and British, Polish, Mexican, Arabian and American Harper’s Bazaar, and more.
She has worked with Mario Testino for Michael Kors, Steven Meisel for Vogue Italia, Tim Walker for American Vogue, Greg Kadel for German Vogue, Terry Richardson for H&M and Patrick Demarchelier for Dior.
Skriver has appeared in catalogs and advertisements for Victoria’s Secret and walked in the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show every consecutive year since 2013. In February 2016, it was announced that Skriver was officially one of the brand’s contracted Angels.
Skriver has on numerous occasions spoken candidly about LGBT rights and openly discussed her own upbringing with both parents being members of the LGBT community.
In 2015, Skriver was made a celebrity ambassador for the Family Equality Council and its Outspoken Generation Program, which aims to raise awareness about LGBTQ families.
She has said that her ultimate goal is that her story will not be that interesting soon, because that would mean that society has come to accept LGBT parents to be just as traditional and normal as any other way of having a family.
On January 2020 Skriver was confirmed as the newest model for the 2020 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue.
She is the Co-Creator of Joja, which is a mash-up of the names of the models Josephine Skriver and Jasmine Tookes. On their social accounts they offer gym tips, healthy treats and updates centered on the joy of working out with your bestie. For Skriver and Tookes, who began their careers at roughly the same time and have been training together for years, the decision to post their routines was a natural offshoot of their shared passion.
