While other girls her age were playing with dolls, Trump was accompanying her father to his projects. “I was fascinated by construction and development,” recalls the lifelong New Yorker, who grew up in Trump Tower with older brother Donald Jr. and younger brother Eric. Aside from enduring the nasty public divorce of her parents, Donald and Ivana, she led an as-ordinary-as-possible life skating in Central Park, visiting the American Museum of Natural History and avoiding the pitfalls that entrap some of the city’s young and ultra-affluent.

Getting her secondary education at Choate Rosemary Hall, an elite Connecticut boarding school, shielded her from the paparazzi. When she was, in fact, photographed, she was paid for her efforts. The 5-foot-11-inch blonde began modeling as a teen, posed for a Seventeen cover and sashayed in fashion shows for Versace and Thierry Mugler. Soon, however, she left the catwalk to study real estate and finance, and graduated summa cum laude from her dad’s alma mater, the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania. “Business school teaches you how to approach problems and manage the thought process,” notes the brainy beauty.

After her first postcollege job—working not for the Trump Organization, but for Forest City Ratner, another prominent New York City developer—she joined the family firm, where she is now a vice president of development and acquisitions, with direct influence on the guy at the top. “No one innately understands what people want out of a luxury product like my father does,” says Trump. “My brothers and I represent the voice of the younger generation.” She’s especially proud of her role in developing the Trump Hotel Collection, which includes highly rated properties in New York, Chicago and Las Vegas, with 13 more in the pipeline.

Meanwhile, she has made repeated appearances on The Apprentice (NBC-TV) and extended her brand into baubles by joining forces with Dynamic Diamond Corp. to design and launch the Ivanka Trump signature jewelry collection, sold exclusively at her flagship Madison Avenue boutique (additional locations are planned). “Our pieces are contemporary, feminine and warm,” says Trump, who wears sparkling examples at every opportunity. “I inherited my love and appreciation for quality jewelry from my mother.”

From both her parents, Trump also inherited enormous drive. Just listening to her schedule is exhausting. “I get up quite early, go to bed late and am in the office all day on Sunday to clear out my in-box,” she reports. Home is a $1.5-million, two-bedroom apartment on Park Avenue, which she financed herself. Her clothes represent another significant investment. An impeccably attired fixture on the social circuit, she is often seen around town with her boyfriend, Jared Kushner—owner of the New York Observer newspaper and, like her, a third-generation real-estate executive—donning outfits by Vivienne Tam, Alberta Ferretti and Yves Saint Laurent, usually accessorized by stratospheric heels. Still, she claims to hate shopping.

What does Trump, who plans to have children and bring them into the family business, like to do in her spare time? Go to movies, ride her bicycle and dine at Italian restaurants La Houppa on the Upper East Side, for its friendly atmosphere, and Supper in the East Village, for its mint pasta. For brunch, “Jean Georges makes the best eggs in the city,” says Trump, who prefers hers scrambled with cheese and tomato. “And they’re reasonably priced,” she adds.