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Tyra Banks

Poster: Peter Leonard 18/11/2005

From self-conscious teenager to international star, Tyra Banks is the first Africa-American to achieve supermodel status.

Life growing up in California was difficult for Tyra Banks. Born in Inglewood on 4 December 1973, she was extremely thin and frequently teased – which led to her developing “a very strong self-image problem”.

That pain soon eased, however, as she began her freshman year at Loyola Marymount University and, at 17, received her first modelling assignment from the Elite modelling. At the time she didn’t consider this to be the start of a long career in fashion. “An agent saw pictures of me and said that I was the only girl she wanted to take back to Paris… I didn’t leave thinking I was going to be some big fashion model. I just wanted to make money for college.”

Instead of heading to university, however, Tyra remained on the fashion catwalks of Paris – quickly gaining international acclaim for her work, in magazines and commercials and on billboards. One leading rival was said to have been so jealous of her success she tried to have her excluded from shows for Chanel, but Tyra’s career continued to blossom and she had the perfect repost for her bête noire: she became the first African-American to be featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated’s special swimsuit issue. She also became a favourite with Victoria’s Secret, and won several awards in spite of reservations by fashion designers that she was too voluptuous to be a catwalk model.

She has always fiercely defended her shape, declaring in one newspaper interview: “I am totally against plastic surgery. A lot of people think I have breast implants because I have the biggest boobs in the business. But I was a 34C when I was 17… They stay up when I wear a push-up bra. But if people could see me when I come home and take off my bra, how could they think these are fake?

“Some models are quite flat-chested so they can run around without bouncing. I can’t… Black women don’t have the same body image problems as white women. They are proud of their bodies. Black men love big butts.”

Perhaps aware that she would always face criticism in the modelling industry, Tyra expanded her horizons as a media personality, becoming host, judge and producer of the TV show America’s Next Top Model; beginning her own talk show, The Tyra Banks Show, this autumn in the US; co-starring in films; appearing on music videos; and recording singles – while also establishing a charitable foundation to help teenagers trying to overcome there own self-esteem problems.

All this time, she has managed to keep her own life fairly private, though there have been well-publicised dalliances with director John Singleton and Seal (who married Heidi Klum this year). She has often expressed her preference for a “normal guy” in order to avoid intensive media scrutiny and the pressures this entails.

Her personal wealth is estimated to be just under $10 million, making her one of the current five richest supermodels. With her many other interests, she is not only likely to swell her bank account further – but also become an even more recognisable face, and body, around the world.

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There has been intense speculation in recent years that Tyra Banks is being groomed to take over the hot seat in The Oprah Winfrey Show. The super-model did, in fact, work alongside Oprah for two seasons as “youth correspondent” – and may make a more permanent move when Oprah retires – but in the meantime she has her own The Tyra Banks Show.

When Oprah began her programme, there were few celebrities, and Tyra Banks follows a similar formula. The goal of her daily talk show, which “focuses on the dreams, hopes and challenges of today’s young women”, is “to empower women to be the best they can be for themselves, their families and their communities”.

Not that its goals are entirely lofty. “Of course we’re going to learn and grow and cry sometimes,” she says, “but mostly we’re going to have fun. I’m talkin’ laughin’, screamin’, dancin’, catwalkin’ fun.”

Though not always just fun… “…there will be make-overs but I think we should all learn to appreciate our inner beauty too. I want us to feel fierce the moment we wake up.”

The show is currently being screened in the US but will no doubt eventually make its way to Europe via satellite.

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Tyra Banks is creator and co-producer of the reality show America’s Next Top Model. Launched in 2003, the show became a hit with fans of Big Brother-style expel-'em TV entertainment, leading to its inevitable export to Europe: Britain’s Next Top Model can now be seen on Sky’s Living channel.

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● She was rejected several times for modelling assignments before receiving her first assignment from the Elite modelling agency, at 17.

● Her voluptuous figure (at least compared with other top models) - 5’10½” (1.70m) and 34½-23½-35½ (88-60-89) - meant she had a hard time persuading fashion designers to use her on the catwalk.

● She was the first African-American model to feature on the cover of Sports Illustrated’s popular swimsuit issue.

● She was also the first African-American to appear on the covers of Gentlemen’s Quarterly and the Victoria’s Secret catalogue.

● In 1994, she was named by People magazine as one of the “50 most beautiful people in the world”, and later rated “the most beautiful Afro-American woman in the world”.

● In 1997 she won the prestigious Michael Award for Supermodel of the Year.

● She made a brief appearance in Michael Jackson’s Black or White video, and appeared with Linda Evangelista in George Michael’s Too Funky video.

● She recorded her own first single, Shake Ya Body this year with basketball star Kobe Bryant.

● In the first month of The Tyra Banks Show she underwent a sonogram to prove her breasts weren’t fake.

● She is CEO of her own company, TYInc.

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In 1992, Tyra Banks established The Tyra Banks Scholarship, a fund which grants African-American girls the opportunity of attending her alma mater, the Immaculate Heart all-girls private high school in Los Angeles.

Eight years later, her self-founded foundation sponsored the first year of TZONE, an annual summer camp for teenage girls which “reinforces core values of trust and support, challenges teen girls to resist negative social pressures, and enhances self-empowerment”.

After writing Tyra’s Beauty Inside & Out (HarperCollins), she is said to have realised that the difficulties she overcame as a teen could be used to connect with girls also struggling with self-esteem issues.

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