Doutzen Kroes was born on January 23, 1985, in the town of Oostermeer, in the province of Fryslân, the Netherlands. After graduating high school, she sent snapshots to modeling agency Paparazzi in Amsterdam.
In 2005, Doutzen Kroes was selected as "Model of The Year" on Vogue.com by readers and was featured on the cover of the May 2007 issue with Hilary Rhoda, Caroline Trentini, Raquel Zimmermann, Sasha Pivovarova, Agyness Deyn, Coco Rocha, Jessica Stam, Chanel Iman, and Lily Donaldson as the new crop of "supermodels". Along with several of these models, she appeared in the 2008 Pirelli Calendar.
Kroes also is in the official Frisian provincial campaign for the Frisian language which is her mother tongue. In 2006, Omrop Fryslân made a documentary about Kroes. Piter Claus follows Kroes during the fashion week in Milan. The documentary won a NL-Award for best regional documentary.
Doutzen Kroes received the Lifetime Achievement Award, part of the Dutch Model Awards, in Amsterdam on May 12, 2009. The jury praised her achievements at her age.
At the end of August 2008, Victoria's Secret confirmed to People magazine that Kroes was to be the newest Victoria's Secret Angel. Her first campaign as the brand's newest Angel is "Supermodel Obsession", alongside Adriana Lima. She was recently signed to be the new face for Swiss cashmere label Repeat for two years.
Currently, she is signed by DNA Model Management.