The Ugly Business of Beautiful Women by Michael Gross, the first known use of the term supermodel was in the 1940s by an agent named Clyde Matthew Dessner in a 1943 "how-to" book he wrote about modeling. However, a writer named Judith Cass used the term prior to Dessner in October 1942 for her article in the Chicago Tribune, which headlined "Super Models are Signed for Fashion Show".The term "supermodel" took hold in the popular culture of the 1980s and 1990s.

Janice Dickinson has frequently but erroneously claimed to be the originator of the term. In an interview with ET, Janice Dickinson claimed to have coined the term "supermodel" in 1979, as a compound of superman and model. According to her, her agent Monique Pilar of Elite Modeling Agency, asked her, "Janice, who do you think you are, Superman?" She replied saying, "No... I am a supermodel, honey, and you will refer to me as a supermodel and you will start a supermodel division. Dickinson also claims to be the first supermodel.

However, the term "supermodel" had been used several times in the media prior to Dickinson's claim. Some examples can be seen: in May 1967 The Salisbury Daily Times referred to Twiggy as a supermodel; the February 1968 article of Glamour magazine listed all 19 "supermodels"; the Chicago Daily Defender wrote "New York Designer Turns Super Model" in January 1970; the Washington Post and Mansfield News Journal used the term in 1971; and in 1974 both the Chicago Tribune and Advocate also used the term "supermodel" in their articles.