ivanka trump
Ivanka Trump is an American businesswoman, former reality TV personality, socialite, author and fashion model. She is the daughter of President Donald Trump and his first wife, former model Ivana Trump. Mike Segar/Reuters

Ivanka Trump, the eldest daughter of President Donald Trump, had a major influence on his campaign. Her influence was also evident soon after the election when she sat in on Trump's meeting with Japanese leader Shinzo Abe, the then president-elect's first meeting with a foreign leader.

Ivanka prefers to avoid media attention as far as possible. In an interview with GQ in 2007, Ivanka described the media as "vicious and brutal," as she recalled being crowded by photographers outside her Chapin school in Manhattan. She was just 9 years old and was taken aback when one of them asked her if her father was good in bed. "It taught me not to trust anyone," she said. "You can never let your guard down, and I never really have since that time."

Although Ivanka has shied away from the media since childhood, she supports her father's ambitions and talks about them sometimes. Her professional commitments also do not let her escape from the spotlight, easily.

She tried out a modeling career at the age of 15 and appeared on the cover of Seventeen and in a Tommy Hilfiger ad campaign. She also walked the runway for Versace and Thierry Mugler. Her parents did not appear to be very supportive of the idea. "This is an interesting case," Donald Trump told the New York Times in 1997. "I am only modestly in favor of this because I understand that that life is a very fast life, and at that age it is always a risky proposition."

After she quit modeling, she went to Wharton Business School, where she graduated and her first work experience was at a different real estate firm. But shortly after that, she joined the family business. She was also judge on "Celebrity Apprentice" from 2006 until her father announced he would run for president.

Ivanka acts as the executive vice president of development and acquisition for the Trump Organization besides her brothers, Eric and Donald Trump Jr. But she also has businesses to her credit that include her own lines of clothing, shoes, handbags, kids' shoes, glasses, and jewelry, and her own lifestyle website. In 2014, she started the #WomenWhoWork initiative on her website, posting articles about career, life advice and fashion, mainly aimed at women looking to climb the corporate ladder. A book by Ivanka Trump with the same title will be available in spring 2017.

She is also a mother of three children, Arabella, 5, Joseph, 2, and 4-month-old Theodore.

Ivanka had always supported her father and has said that her father supports women. "He 100 percent believes in equality of gender, so, yes, absolutely — socially, politically, and economically [he is a feminist]," she told Town & Country in May. "[He has] confidence in women to do any job that a man can do, and my whole life has been proof of that."