Jourdan Dunn is officially Britain's top model

Jourdan Dunn is celebrating tonight after being crowned Model of the Year at the British Fashion Awards for the second time.She first received the accolade in 2008.

She was presented with the award by Olivier Rousteing, creative director of Balmain, for whom she has modelled many times."I"m going to tell you a story about her," he said, "it was four or five years ago, a significant show - the Balmain show that would save my life - the difficulty was finding a leader who had a really strong personality.I realised she was an Amazon of our time.She worked all night in very high heels and a really, really short dress."

Accepting the award, Dunn said:"To start the year with a British Vogue cover and to finish with this is amazing."

Now 25, the Greenford-born beauty was spotted aged 15 while shopping in the Hammersmith branch of Primark with a friend.She made her catwalk debut at the Marc Jacobs autumn/winter 2007 show and has worked solidly since, taking only a brief break to give birth to her son, Riley, in 2009 when she was just 18.

She has since scored a number of significant career highlights; in 2008 she became the first black model to appear in a Prada show in 13 years, and in January 2015 she was credited with ending British Vogue ethnic diversity drought when she became the first black model to appear solo on the cover of the publication in 12 years.

This year she was ranked the ninth highest-earning model in the world, with an estimated income of £2.2 million in 2014 - hardly surprising considering the countless campaigns she has under her 24-inch belt, from Balmain and Burberry to H&M and Next.

She is known for her outspoken attitude towards the fashion industrys inequalities and has often spoken of her experiences with racism.She once revealed that she has been turned away from castings because they "didn"t want any more black girls", and that a white make-up artist once refused to do her make-up.She has alsolent her supportto Naomi Campbell and Iman"sBalance Diversity campaign,which seeks to end racism in the modelling industry, saying "I want to talk about what goes on.A lot of people are scared to speak up."

"The people who control the industry … say if you have a black face on a magazine cover it won"t sell, but there"s no real evidence for that.It"s lazy," she told The Guardian in 2014.

Motherhood brought more than just the challenge of bringing up her son alone.Riley, now six, suffers from Sickle Cell Disease and Dunn campaigns tirelessly to raise awareness of the illness.