Tyra Banks is a history maker.
As one of the first Black supermodels, she's paved the way for other men and woman of color to be upfront and center where they belong.
She's also a mother, a businesswoman, and the current host of Dancing with the Stars. Is there anything she can't do??
Come learn more about this model citizen.
She was only 12 when she worked with her mom who was a medical photographer.
"But on the side, she did a before-and-after glam photography business in the house. She would do makeup and hair—and I was her assistant," she told Allure.
Her early days as an aspiring model wasn't easy, as several fashion agencies told her that they "already have a Black girl."
Eventually, she got signed to Elite Model Management while she was in high school
For one, she's all for it, as she overcame a lot of hurdles to get where she is today.
But she doesn't want things like skin color and size being a trend.
"My skin is not a trend, your skin is not a trend, your skin is not a trend, we are who we are so we should not go in and out of fashion," she said.
She's got beauty and brains.
The model attended the prestigious school to learn more about launching her own Tyra Beauty company.
She didn't rely on her name making it successful; she wanted to make it happen herself.
The supermodel wants you to know it's okay to wake up like this!
"Maybe you're thinking, "Whoa, she looks ROUGH." And if you are, great! You deserve to see the REAL me. The REALLY real me. #RawAndReal," she captioned this image.
The model has always been self-sufficient.
She told Allure that back in the '90s, models would even ask her to do their makeup.
"Even girls older than me and well-known—it's just my passion."
Putting kids off for so long led to her infertility issues.
“It’s so funny when I was 23 years old, I used to tell myself, ‘In three years, I’m going to have kids,'" she shared in 2015.
By the time she was ready, her body wasn't cooperating.
In the end, she went through the process to have her son, York, via a gestational surrogate. We could seriously not be happier for her.
"I flew to Turkey and did a photo shoot in a small town with all these guys around me drinking tea, and I was walking around in bikinis," she told Allure.
"They were looking at me like I was crazy. And then I left, and I went home, and Sports Illustrated called me and said the pictures were unusable."
"I get there and the weather is awful. It's overcast, raining, and this new photographer is cute but he's kind of inexperienced. Every time he shows me a Polaroid, they're dark and I've got dark circles under my eyes."
During the eighth season of the popular show, she found herself juggling too many things.
"I went to [my lawyer] and I was like, you know what, I’m ready to bring someone else in," she told Entertainment Weekly.
In the end, her lawyer stopped her.
They said, "'What are you doing? You created this show. It’s starting to get traction around the entire world. I beg of you not to do this.’ But, I was so tired. I was like, fine, fine, I’ll just continue."
The model left the brand in 2005 because she said that she wanted to leave before they kicked her out because of her age.
At the time, she was 32.
“But now that I’m older than ever, and thicker than ever, and I’m saying beauty knows no age and size, I wanted to put my money where my mouth is.”
The model has been the center of controversy ever since she stepped into Tom Bergeron and Erin Andrews shoes.
Things got really rough this past Monday night when she announced the wrong couple as safe during the show's elimination.
She later apologized for the mistake.
"Wowzers. Live TV. Wrong name on cards," Banks tweeted. "So challenging to deal with moments like these. But we power through."
“Every host messes up. It’s just normal. It’s live TV. If it wasn’t live, there would be no mess-ups,” she told Us Weekly.
She even encourages her mistakes: “Even on America’s Next Top Model, I would mess up and tell my editors to leave it in. That’s what makes things human and makes like live.”
