Business

Meet the 21-year-old model featured in the Carl's Jr. Super Bowl ad that everyone is talking about

Posted February 02, 2015 10:00 pm

Aly Weisman

<img src="http://static5.businessinsider.com/image/54cff55b6bb3f776471b7745-1200-632/screen-shot-2015-02-02-at-5.07.03-pm.png" border="0" alt="Charlotte McKinney model hamburger commercial carl's jr" style="color: #000000;">During Sunday night's Super Bowl, 114.4 million people watched model Charlotte McKinney chomp down on a burger in the totally viral new Carl's Jr. commercial.

Just 21 years old, McKinney is the latest "Burger Babe" to follow in the footsteps of Paris Hilton, Kate Upton, Nina Agdal, Katherine Webb, and Emily Ratajkowski.

Known for its sultry ads, the burger chain features in its latest commercial a scantily clad McKinney with the tagline "All Natural" just like the new grass-fed-beef burger from Carl's Jr!

While Victoria's Secret model Nina Agdal stole the spotlight in last year's ad, McKinney is relatively unknown to the general public.

After a little research, here's what we learned:

1. Where does she come from?

McKinney, 21, was born in Orlando, Florida, spent time in Miami, and is now based in Los Angeles.

2. She dropped out of high school at age 17 after struggling with bullying and dyslexia.

"The girls were rude they would call me whore, slut, fake boobs it was brutal, pretty brutal," McKinney told the Daily Mail. "But it was hard for me, when I was 14 I was growing into my body and I had these boobs, I didn't know what to do with them! But I just knew I was above it all, I have an older sister, Garland, who has my back, and these girls didn't matter."

McKinney also struggled with dyslexia. "I've had such a hard time with dyslexia my whole life," she told the Daily Mail. "When I was a child I didn't learn to read until I was a lot older, and I was behind in my classes; it was such a challenge. Whenever people talk about dyslexia, it's important to know that some of the smartest people in the world, major owners of companies, are dyslexic. We just see things differently, so that's an advantage. I just learn a different way; there's nothing bad about it."

But when Charlotte decided to leave school, her parents supported her.

"Most parents would be bummed out, but my parents knew I was on the right track; I knew what I had to do to be successful," she added. "I'm only 5 feet, 7 inches tall, and for modeling that's small, so I wasn't getting signed, but I kept on pushing."

<img src="http://static3.businessinsider.com/image/54d008836da811c76f7a3073-1200-600/charlotte-mckinney-model-tongue-out-thumbs-up.jpg" border="0" alt="Charlotte McKinney model tongue out thumbs up">3. Her big break.

McKinney tells AO-AO: "I didn't really get discovered for a while  I was just doing everything on my own  but recently Paul Marciano contacted me for a Guess shoot, and that's definitely helped my modeling career a lot more."

Today, McKinney is repped by Wilhelmina and One modeling agencies in New York.

4. McKinney has over 274,000 Instagram followers, and her large social-media following helped her get cast in the Carl's Jr. ad.

"They saw my Fox interview and my social-media pages, and then they reached out to my agent," McKinney told Esquire. "There wasn't really an audition process. They just booked me."

<img src="http://static6.businessinsider.com/image/54cffe946bb3f78f651b7748-1015-717/screen-shot-2015-02-02-at-5.47.09-pm.png" border="0" alt="Charlotte McKinney Instagram" style="line-height: 1.5em;">5. She actually ate the burger in the Carl's Jr. commercial.

"I went for it! I bit into that burger," she tells Esquire. "They want it to look as real as it can. I definitely got in there. They said usually most of the girls take a lot of bites, but I only did eight. My best bite was my first one. I only took eight bites. I'm a fan of Carl's Jr. though. I'm from Florida, and we didn't have it out there, so when I came to LA it was definitely a choice I made to eat it."

<img src="http://static3.businessinsider.com/image/54d00108ecad04fe74dce602-1200-632/screen-shot-2015-02-02-at-5.57.32-pm.png" border="0" alt="Charlotte McKinney Carls Jr hamburger model eating">6. Her dad doesn't mind the racy ad.

"People will be like, 'Oh your dad saw it?' and I'm like, 'Of course my dad saw it!' He friggin' loved it," she told People. "My dad gets a kick out of anything like that. [My family is] my No. 1 fans, so they just freaked out and called all their friends. Even my grandfather who's in his 90s got to see it. They all loved it."

7. She has a part in the coming "Joe Dirt" sequel alongside David Spade.

"I play a logger named Missy," McKinney tells Esquire. "That was so much fun to shoot. You'll just have to see it for yourself. I don't want to spoil it all now. It will be out this summer."

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