During Beverly Johnson’s youth, “Fashion was never discussed in the Johnson home.” Yet, when the teenaged Beverly finally heeded the comments urging her to consider a modeling career, it was her mother who, ignoring her father’s disapproval, took Beverly to New York City to meet with a woman who had close relationships to the leading fashion magazines.

The successful four-decade career in modeling that followed is now passionately described by Johnson in The Face That Changed It All: A Memoir.

Johnson describes herself as a tall, painfully shy “nerd” who, while growing up in Buffalo, New York, always had her head in a book and loved swimming. Often bullied by her classmates, as a teen she also experienced attempted molestation from the father of a child she was babysitting. Despite original career aspirations to be a championship swimmer or a lawyer, a few chance encounters led her to New York City and a career in which Johnson eventually made her mark in 1974 as the first black cover model of Vogue.