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.
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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.
1. Her first job was as a makeup artist and lighting assistant.
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 .
2. She received a lot of rejections before making it as a model.
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
3. She has a lot of thoughts on diversity in the fashion industry.
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.
“To me, race is not a trend,” she said during an AOL Build panel.
“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 .
4. She went to Harvard Business School.
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.
5. She encourages people to be their most vulnerable selves.
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.
6. She used to do her own makeup at fashion shows.
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.”
7. She struggled with infertility issues before having her son.
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.
“Then I turned 24. ‘In three years, I’m going to have kids.’”
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.
8. Her first solo Sports Illustrated cover was a disaster.
“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.”
They asked her to get on a plane and head to the Bahamas to shoot again.
“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.”
9. She almost quit *America’s Next Top Model* in the early days of the show.
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 .
She even brought in her “replacement” to the network.
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.”
10. She regrets retiring from Victoria’s Secret.
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 looking back now, she told *That Guardian* that she feels like a “hypocrite” since she returned to the brand this year.
“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.”
11. She’s faced a lot of criticism ever since she became the host of *Dancing with the Stars*.
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.
People on Twitter even called for the host to be fired.
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.”
Despite this, she’s been taking the *DWTS* hate in stride.
“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.”
