Sofía Vergara has been a household name in Latin America long before she scored her 2009 role as Gloria Delgado-Pritchett on “Modern Family,” which is entering into it’s tenth season. Her acting, beauty, and personality earned her the top spot as the world’s highest paid TV actress for the sixth year in a row. And not by a small margin. She earns $15 million more than the second highest paid actor, earning $41.5 million last year alone.

Long before she became one of the most influential Latinas in Hollywood, Vergara was just a young girl trying to win over the graces of the nuns at her Barranquilla, Colombia high school. From her first photo shoot at 11 years old to telenovelas, travel shows and even surviving cancer, Vergara has barely aged.

Vergara’s first photo shoot was when she was 11 years old.

It was the 80’s. Apparently, Vergara was “apprehensive” of entering the modeling industry until her Catholic school teachers gave her their blessing. *Makes Sign of the Cross*

By the time she was 13 years old, she was traveling to Bogota for shoots.

She was very thin growing up (and to this day), which was cause for bullying in 1980s Colombia. While she was coveted at the shoots, she would go back to school wearing two pairs of jeans to give the impression she had a fuller body.

Vergara is a natural blonde.

Directors told Vergara to dye her hair darker so she could fit the Latina stereotype. ???? I have a lot of mixed feelings about this, but am ultimately glad that we get to see a Latina role played by a Latina.

Throughout the ’90s, she started making magazine covers and eventually got into acting.

Caption: “#tbt my first international mag cover!! The 90’s???????????????????????? #miami1992????”

Most of us were just babies back then, but our moms still had us in lo mismo earrings as Vergara.

Vergara busted into the acting industry with a small role on the Mexican telenovela “Acapulco, Cuerpo y Alma”.

It’s just a classic tale of jealousy around David Montalvo, who is successful and charming. Long story short, a woman is tricked into marrying an impersonator of David; David is involved in an accident and then gets amnesia; the woman falls in love with David.

Her big break was as Univision’s travel show host for “Fuera de Serie.”

Vergara has not had a single piece of cosmetic work done to her body.

She’s casually just a natural 32F.

“#tbt Miami Beach????☀️To when I didn’t know my 2 favorite things where bad for u! Sun and transfats???? #thegoodtimes#boththingsmademybuttlookgreat????”

She was then cast in the Spanish language version of Desperate Housewives.

It was called “Amas de Casa Desesperadas” and she honestly slayed the role. She played “Alicia” and narrated the Ecuadorian-Colombian series.

Remember her from “Soul Plane”?

She was Blanca and she was sultry as hell in her fourth ever big screen role. She also had parts in “Lords of Dogtown,” “Tyler Perry’s Meet the Browns,” and “National Lampoon’s Pledge This!” as herself.

In 2002, she was a Miller Lite spokesperson and literally looks no different today.

By this point, she was already super famous in Latin America and made some pretty funny Spanish-language commercials for them.

She doesn’t eat meat in the U.S. because the “meat here tastes funny.”

Her father was a cattle rancher in Colombia, and she probably grew up on non-mutant cows. It all makes sense. Watch her Instagram for when she returns to Colombia because it’s just a bunch of pics of lechón.

Vergara has used the money she’s earned to support her family.

She was conflicted between her religious beliefs and her career, but once she had her first child, she saw it as a chance to give her son a better life, away from gang violence.

She had her first and only child, Manolo, when she was just 19 years old.

Vergara married her high school sweetheart, Joe Gonzalez, when she was 18 years old. They divorced two years later.

Caption: “#tbt Manolo 1991❤️❤️❤️”

Vergara looks like an actual baby and Manolo always looks upset.

We know exactly how she was able to raise a kid and skyrocket her career: su familia fue, y todavía es todo. She bought 21 tickets to the 2013 Emmy’s for her closest family members. LOL

She named Manolo after the character in “Scarface.”

Apparently, 19 year old Vergara thought that Steven Bauer, who played Manolo, was “super hot.” That’s all the reason a 19 year old needs to name their kid, right?

In 1998, Vergara’s older brother was murdered in their hometown.

Rafael, 27, always went out with bodyguards, because all the Vergara’s had become targets for kidnapping. One day he went out alone and was shot dead in a kidnapping attempt gone terribly wrong. She moved her little brother, Julio, to Miami after Rafael died.

Julio suffers from addiction and was eventually deported back to Colombia in 2011.

Two years later she was diagnosed with thyroid cancer.

Thankfully, it’s one of the most curable cancers, and she had the whole gland removed. She has to take medication daily for the rest of her life to control hypothyroidism. Obviously, she’s thriving.

Vergara is a total foodie.

Caption: “Some things never change.”

She’s just one of those people that eats candy all day, has dessert at every meal, and is basically always eating and all the fat goes to her boobs. #LatinGenes

She eats pastéles on the daily.

And she knows that Cubanos know all the right things to do with guava. I’m drooling.

Caption: “Desayunito Cubanito????????????????”

Vergara has had a pretty quiet romantic life… until recently.

Shakira is one of her closest friends.

The both grew up in the same town of Baranquilla! Apparently, it’s where all the natural blonde Renaissance women live. Excuse me while I pack a bag.

READ: 21 Sofia Vergara Facts You Didn’t Know

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