Miranda Priestly was born Miriam Princhek, in London's East End. Hers was like all the other Orthodox Jewish families in the town, stunningly poor but devout. Her father occasionally worked odd jobs, but mostly they relied on the community for support since he spent most of his days studying Jewish texts.

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Her mother had died in childbirth with Miriam, and it was her mother who moved in and helped raise the children. And were there children! Eleven in all. Most of her brothers and sisters went on to work blue-collar jobs like their father, with little time to do anything but pray and work; a couple managed to get themselves into and through the university, only to marry young and begin having large families of their own.

Miriam was the single exception to the family tradition. After saving the small bills her older siblings would slip her whenever they were able, Miriam promptly dropped out of high school upon turning seventeen, a mere three months shy of graduation to take a job as an assistant to an up-and-coming British designer, helping him put together his shows each season. After a few years of making a name for herself as one of the darlings of London's burgeoning fashion world and studying French at night, she scored a job as a junior editor at the French Chic magazine in Paris.

By this time, she had little to do with her family: they didn't understand her life or ambitions, and she was embarrassed by their old-fashioned piety and overwhelming lack of sophistication. The alienation from her family was completed shortly after joining French Chic when, at twenty-four years old, Miriam Princhek became Miranda Priestly, shedding her undeniably ethnic name for one with more panache. Her rough, cockney-girl British accent was soon replaced by a carefully cultivated, educated one, and by her late twenties, Miriam's transformation from Jewish peasant to secular socialite was complete.

She rose quickly, ruthlessly, through the ranks of the magazine world. She spent ten years at the helm of French Runway before Elias transferred her to number one spot at American Runway, the ultimate achievement. She moved her two daughters and her rock-star then husband (himself eager to gain more exposure in America) to a penthouse apartment on Fifth Avenue at 76th Street and began a new era at Runway magazine: the Priestly years.

source: 2003 The Devil Wears Prada - Laura Weisberger

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