By her mid teens, Gia Carangi had developed a beautiful face and an incredible figure.

Kathleen, certain that modeling could change her daughter, encouraged Gia Carangi to model. Gia Carangi was a natural: “I didn’t have to tell her what to do,” said a family friend and first photographer to work with Gia Carangi. “She already knew what to do in front of that camera and that’s a great model.”

At age seventeen Gia Carangi was discovered. Maurice Tannenbaum, who was at the time a hair-stylist and aspiring photographer remembers: “I saw her one night at the DCA, which was a club, and was reluctant to walk over to her, I was just taken by her and she was fascintated by the idea that I wanted to photograph her and she wanted to be photographed. You could see this raw beauty.” Not long after, he took her to New York to try her luck there as a model. “She was very excited, very nervous, very, very nervous. She came with her mother but her mother stayed in a coffee shop while we went off to see Wilhelmina.” Wilhelmina Cooper, a former model herself, ran a modeling agency in New York. She was so excited about Gia Carangi that she forgot to give her a contract.

In early 1978, 18-year-old Gia Carangi packed her bags and moved to New York City. One photographer remembers Gia Carangi in one of her first go-sees: (Click here to read Bill Friedman’s exclusive interview for The Gia Carangi Project). With Wilhelmina’s push, Gia Carangi managed to rise to the top instantly, something that almost never happens in the fashion world. Photographers loved Gia’s street-smart attitude wrapped in jeans and leather: “Gia Carangi reminded me of James Dean. She was very cool but she had a tremendous vulnerability,” said photographer Andrea Blanch. Franceso Scavullo also remembers the first day Gia Carangi walked into his studio: “There’s only been maybe 3 girls in my whole career that have walked into my studio and I went ‘wow’. Gia Carangi was the last who came in here and I said ‘wow.’”

Gia Carangi was said to have had the most beautiful breasts in the business and she needed no taping for the Cosmo covers. By the end of 1978, she had already appeared in several magazines (including American Vogue ) and was making something in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. But still, Gia, who was still 18 at the time, was looking for stability in her life. Gia Carangi was looking for love and compassion at a time when people were looking for sex, money, and drugs. In her search for loving and stable relationships, Gia Carangi fell instantly in love with people she barely knew.

Gia Carangi felt incredibily lonely and even asked her brother Michael to go live with her in New York City. Model Julie Foster remembers in her interview for the E! True Hollywood Story: “Gia Carangi was looking for anyone’s love, she would show up at my house sometimes in the middle of the night and I’d let her in and she just wanted someone to hug her. It was very sad.”

Teenage Gia Carangi, who was desperate looking for love met a teenager named Karen Karusa. They became best friends.

Karen Karusa tells about Gia Carangi: “When I first met her it was just her father and her two brothers, and her father owned some hoagie shops so he worked a lot. She then went to go live with her mother. She had this bouncing around family situation and back and fourth and whatever,”

karen says, “Gia felt abandoned. There was a lot kind of going on inside her, she was very street-smart, but there was a lot of pain and it all kind of comes out and you can feel it. And there was just a lot of feeling when you look at her.”

During her early teens, Gia broke curfews, experimented with alcohol, pills, and marijuana – something that most would say was very common in the 70s. Rebeliousness was a part of the circle they were all travelling on. Gia worshipped David Bowie and identified with his rebeliouss side. With the Bowie kids, Gia found the family she was longing for. She went to concerts and hung out with the older crowd at gay clubs in downtown Philadelphia. Gia identified with Bowie and his worshipers because according to them, it was okay to be different, bisexual, and gay. Gia’s sexuality was the only thing about her she was certain of and most times, proud of. “She was very open about it. She was always kissing someone on the mouth or grabbing someone or whatever,” says Karen. No one was more disappointed than Gia’s mom. She took Gia to counseling, but nothing worked.

Gia Carangi was extremely close to her mother Kathleen, as Gia was growing in close proximity with her mother. As kathleen moved out leaving Gia and her brother with Joe, it was a heart break for young Gia.

Gia Carangi was always wanted her parents to unite again. But Kathleen reamrried after an year and that put an end to any hope young Gia had about their parents reunion.

Gia Carangi’s early teens were spent ideal as she was bounced between two households. Gia was received no or little attention from their parents and that gives a liberty and no disipline.

Gia Carangi had the freedom to do whatever she wanted do as there is no one can question her activities.

Michael Carangi, Gia Carangis brother said in an interview “Gia had a special place being a girl. She had a little canopy bed with the dolls all over the place.”

“Gia was an average little girl, that’s how I remember her.” said her brother Michael Carangi.

“Gia and I used to sit on top of the steps every night and listen to them fight, and we hated it,” said her brother Michael Carangi.

Joeseph Joe Carangi and his wife Kathleen Carangi had their first girl child on January 29 of 1960. The Carengis named their first girl child GIA MARIA CARANGI.
She was special to Carengis being a girl and given special attention from the parents.
Gia Carangi grew up in outskirts of Philadelphia, USA. Her father Joeseph Joe Carangi owned a string of hoagie shops in Philadelphia. Her mother Kathleen Carangi took care of the children Gia Carengi and her elder brother Michael Carangi.

The home life for young Gia Carangi and her brother Michael Carangi was turbulant. Kathleen and Joe Carangi argued constantly.

By 1971, Kathleen moved out, leaving her husband and her children, when Gia Carangy was only 11.

Height 5′8″

Dress Size 6-8-10

Bust 34 Waist 24 Hips 35 1/2

Shoes 8 1/2

Hair Brown

Eyes Brown

* January 1960 Born in Philadelphia
* 1975-1977 Lincoln High School , David Bowie fanatic
* April 1978 Moves to NY City. 350 E. 62, Apt. 3G
* April 1979 Cover, British Vogue, by Chatelain
* April 1979 Cover, Cosmopolitan
* May 1979 Cover, French Vogue, by Newton
* July 1979 Cover Cosmopolitan
* August 1979 Cover of Vogue
* 1978/79 Poster girl Studio 54
* January 1980 Cover Cosmopolitan
* April 1980 Florida shots by John Stember
* July 1980 Cover Cosmopolitan
* August 1980 Cover, French Vogue, by Watson
* November 1980 Last great Vogue shots of Gia, by Piel and Scavullo
* 1983 20/20 focuses on Gia in attempt to portray the dark side of modelling
* February 1981 Cover, Italian Vogue, by Grignachi
* 1982 attempts comeback after battle with heroin addiction
* April 1982 Cover of American Vogue, a gift from Scavullo
* 1984 makes another comeback attempt in Modelling
* Nov 18 1986 Dies of complications from AIDS at 10:00 AM
* Funeral. “Beloved Daughter” is her epitaph.
* July 1996 Paramount begins pre-production on story of her life

Gia Marie Carangi (January 29, 1960 - November 18, 1986) was a top US fashion model of the late 1970s and early 1980s.

Gia Carangi was a precursor to the Cindy Crawford, Rachel Hunter, Elle MacPherson “Supermodel” era, she appeared on the covers of several fashion publications of her time. The fashion magazine covers featuring Gia include British Vogue April 1st 1979, Vogue Paris April 1979, American Vogue August 1980, Vogue Paris August 1980, Italian Vogue January 1981 and several issues of American Cosmopolitan between 1979 and 1982.

Gia Marie Carangi was known in modelling circles as “Gia”, moved from Philadelphia to New York City at the age of 17, and quickly rose to prominence, reaching international fame with such name magazines as Vogue and others.

Gia Carangi was the favourite model of many distinguished fashion photographers including Francesco Scavullo, Arthur Elgort and Chris von Wangenheim. Gia Carangi posed for photos at many countries world-wide and led a fast life, thanks to her exotic appearance and lesbian lifestyle.

Gia Carangi’s sexual orientation has been disputed. While some think Gia Carangi was 100 percent lesbian, others point out to the fact she had many relationships with males and call her bisexual.

Gia Carangi frequented New York’s jet-set night spots, such as Studio 54, and developed a heroin problem during the latter part of her life. Because of Bipolar Disorder, Gia Carangi experienced extreme mood swings and would walk out of a fashion shoot if she didn’t feel like doing it.

Gia Carangi constantly medicated herself with heroin. Gia Carangi made several attempts at fighting her heroin addiction, attending rehabilitation centers multiple times. In 1983, Gia Carangi was profiled on ABC’s 20/20 magazine, in a piece focusing on the dark side of modeling.

In June of 1986, Gia Carangi was diagnosed with HIV, becoming one of the first famous persons to be diagnosed with the disease, and also the first famous female diagnosed.

Gia Carangi died of complications resulting from AIDS in 1986, at the age of 26.

A biography was published in 1993 by author Stephen Fried and a biographical film, Gia, debuted on HBO in 1998 which helped bring Gia Carangi back to the public’s attention. Angelina Jolie played Carangi in the movie.

In 1996, actress-screenwriter Zoë Tamerlis (a.k.a. Zoë Lund, Bad Lieutenant), herself a heroin addict who would die of drug-related causes in 1999, was commissioned to write a screenplay based upon Gia Carangi’s life. This version of Gia was not produced, but after Tamerlis’s death, footage of her discussing Gia Carangi’s life was incorporated into a documentary entitled ‘The Self-Destruction of Gia‘.