Emily Ratajkowski didn't know who the Spice Girls were when she was younger.

Emily Ratajkowski

Emily Ratajkowski

The stunning 25-year-old actress-and-model "never" sang along to the girl band - which was comprised of Victoria Beckham, Mel B, Mel C, Emma Bunton and Geri Horner - because she didn't know a single lyric to any of their songs, including debut smash hit single 'Wannabe'.

Speaking about upbringing in the March issue of InStyle magazine, she said: "Whenever a Spice Girls song came on, everyone knew the words, but it was like, totally over my head."

The 'Gone Girl' star - who first came to the world's attention when she appeared virtually naked in Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams' 'Blurred Lines' music video in 2013 - signed to Ford Models when she was just 14 but she didn't consider her fashion shoot successes to be a "real career" when she was younger.

Emily's initial plan was to earn enough money to go and study at college but she only spent one year at the University of California in 2009 before returning to modelling full-time to make the most of her God-given figure.

She explained: "At the time I thought, 'I'm going to just make a bunch of money and then go back to school.' To be honest, I hadn't figured out that I had a real career on my hands. So I was like, 'OK, this person wants me to do this? Cool.' And then all of a sudden I realised that these projects are just not me. That's when I shifted toward more meaningful things.

"The main criticism I get is 'Aren't you just conforming to a patriarchal standard of beauty?' Well, this is just the body I was given. I didn't do anything to it - it's just my body. But even if I had altered it, that would be fine too."