# Our First Model

Let's start simple but let's jump into an example immediately:

@model()
export class Person extends Model {
  @property public name: string;
  @property public age: number;
  @property public gender?: "male" | "female" | "other";
}

You can probably look at this and understand most of it, but here's a quick point-by-point analysis:

@model - By stating that this class is a @model we are in effect activating for use throughout Firemodel
Model class - We extend the Model class ... more on that later but in essence we get a few opinionated properties for free.
Typing - Each of the properties in our model are typed using standard TypeScript nomenclature
@property - By using the @property decorator we are capturing the type information about the property for the run-time environment.

With this model in place, we could now use it like this to get the 10 most recently added people to the database:

const people = await List.recent(Person, 10);

More on the List, Record, and Watch classes in the "Using" section. Here we just want to get a full understanding of how to model data. On the next page we will continue learning through example but before we move on let's explore what we already have:

A strongly typed model language that leverages the massively popular TypeScript grammar
Typing information that your editor can use to guide you as you code but also type information provided to your code at run time, and an explicit data contract with Firebase

I was searching for a third bullet point but hopefully you're impressed with the two we have. Let's move onto another example.

← The "Model" Class Model Constraints →