Tyra Banks
Tyra Banks
Tyra Lynne Banks is an American model, television personality, talk show host, producer, author, actress, singer and business woman. She began her career as a model at age 15, and became the first African American woman on the covers of GQ and the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue, on which she appeared twice. She was a Victoria's Secret Angel from 1997 to 2005. By the early 2000s, Banks was one of the top-earning models in the world...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionTV Show Host
Date of Birth4 December 1973
CityInglewood, CA
CountryUnited States of America
I have a big forehead, and I got made fun of all time. When I was a little girl, they used to call me 'five-head.'
You are not here because you take bad pictures, but because of something we call lack of persona.
When I was a young girl, I lost a lot of weight over one summer - involuntarily - and was just really depressed and sad. There was nothing I could do to gain weight. I would look in the mirror and call myself disgusting every day.
On 'America's Top Model,' I've always told my girls to smile with their eyes. We call it 'smizing.' Over the years, it's actually become part of pop culture. I would be walking down the street, and girls would say, 'Smize!'
With 'America's Next Top Model,' I've always cast girls who the industry might call 'plus size' but I like to call 'fiercely real.' That was always important to me.
I've wanted to adopt since I was eight, nine years old. I really do think I will.
I used to want to write commercials as a kid.
I've made mistakes before of doing different projects just based on my dreams, my hopes, my thing, and not really thinking about my customers.
I volunteer a lot of my time with an organization in New York called The Center for Children and Families.
Us brown-skinned girls get ashy if we don't moisturize.
I would love for models to be protected by a guild.
I would love to do Rihanna's makeup. I love her cupid's bow!
I think of dystopian as 'Mad Max,' as 'Book of Eli,' as the world is ending.
When it comes to my celebrity interviews, I'm going to do a lot deeper research and ask them things that people haven't asked before, ... I've been on the other side so much, I have a leg up on a person that has only just interviewed people.