Cameron Michelle Diaz was born August 30, 1972,
[5] in
San Diego,
California, to Billie (
née Early), an import/export agent, and Emilio Diaz,
[6] a foreman of the California oil company
Unocal.
[7][8] Diaz has an elder sister, Chimene.
[7] Her father's family is Cuban, and Diaz's forebears had moved from Spain to Cuba.
[9] Diaz stated that her direct
Spanish ancestors were originally from
Cadiz.
[10] Later, they settled in
Ybor City,
Tampa, Florida, before moving to the
Los Angeles area, where her father was born.
[11][12] Her mother has predominantly
English and
German ancestry.
[13][14]
Diaz was raised in
Long Beach[8] and attended
Los Cerritos Elementary School, and then
Long Beach Polytechnic High School,
[15] where she was a schoolmate of
Snoop Dogg.
[16] She recalled her upbringing as frugal, stating: "I had amazing parents, they were awesome. We weren't privileged—very much the opposite. My family would collect [soda] cans to turn in for extra money, because $20 meant something to us. But we were very happy."
[17]
While still attending high school, Diaz signed a modeling contract with
Elite Model Management at age 16
[18] and appeared in advertisements for
Calvin Klein and
Levi's.
[19] The following year, at age 17, she was featured on the cover of the July 1990 issue of
Seventeen magazine.
[18] Diaz also modeled for 2 to 3 months in
Australia and shot a commercial for
Coca-Cola in
Sydney in 1991.
[20][21][22]