Melania Trump's Early Years Were Nothing Like Her Life Today

Before she was the wife of a wealthy businessman and former president, former first lady Melania Trump was a shy, quiet girl growing up in a small industrial town in communist Yugoslavia. She lived in a humble, Soviet-era relic of an apartment, knit her own sweaters, diligently worked at school, and listened to pop music on cassette. At that time, the idea of becoming an internationally renowned public figure was a distant, lofty dream.

Nevertheless, according to Trump's childhood friends, the young girl kept her eyes locked on these visions of something greater than her tiny Yugoslavian town, which has a population under 5,000 today. "I think I can say Sevnica was too small for her," Trump's school friend Mirjana Jelancic told the Associated Press (via People). "Even as a child, she dreamed of moving."

Once the future first lady entered her teens, it was clear that her quiet nature didn't indicate a lack of ambition. On the contrary, the young woman once lauded in her hometown for her exceptional beauty had been planning her escape route all along.

Melania Trump was born to Amalija Knavs, a textile factory worker, and Viktor Knavs, a traveling car salesman, in the industrial mountain town of Sevnica in modern-day Slovenia. Her father's association with the League of Communists granted the Knavses more opportunities for upward growth than those who chose not to associate with the communist regime, eventually helping the family move into a more well-to-do home by the Sava River.

"Melania and I always sat next to each other in school," Nena Bedek told the Daily Mail in 2015. "She was quiet and wholesome." Bedeck said Trump's sister, Ines Knauss, was even shyer than Melania. "There was little entertainment in those days. We played outside a lot. And we listened to the radio, swapping tapes. Melania was transfixed by the idea of becoming a model and loved sketching designs for clothes. She took extra art classes outside school and was naturally stylish."

Mirjana Jelancic told the AP that Trump was kind to her peers and was a star pupil. Jelancic remembered the future first lady as a well-mannered, studious classmate. While Trump's childhood friend admitted being surprised by Melania's marriage to Donald Trump, it made sense. Not only was Donald very similar to Viktor, but the New York real estate mogul also offered a promising ticket to the life of grandeur Melania hoped for as a wistful pre-teen.

The stunning transformation of Melania Trump from a quietly ambitious Sevnican to an American billionaire's third wife might seem extraordinary, but people's accounts of then-Melania Knavs draw a clear line between Trump in the 1980s and who she is today. Perhaps most notably, many people who knew Melania in her youth commented on her striking appearance, which the former model is still known for today. She's also credited her upbringing as a seamstress' daughter for her decision to pursue a career in fashion.

When Trump was 15, she left her small mountain town for Slovenia's capital city, Ljubljana, a little over an hour away. She attended the Secondary School of Design and Photography to study architecture before shifting her focus to modeling two years later in 1987. What started as odd, sometimes clunky modeling jobs quickly blossomed into a successful career that took her around the world under her new moniker, Melania Knauss (a spelling variation of her maiden name, Knavs). Melania would meet her future husband, Donald Trump, at a New York Fashion Week party in Manhattan in 1998.

Melania's Be Best anti-bullying campaign during her husband's presidency also connects the former first lady to her past self, who childhood friends remembered as congenial. Melania and her mother, Amalija Knavs, with whom she had a close-knit relationship, raised Melania's only son, Barron Trump, to be familiar with Slovenian culture and foods and fluent in the Knavs' native tongue.