Tyra Banks

                                                   

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Happy belated birthday Tyra and may you see many more.  Tyra Banks, a multifaceted woman, is a media personality and what we call in those days, a world-famous supermodel.  Do people still call models, supermodels these days?  Tyra Banks is basically a jack of all trades; a supermodel, tv producer, singer, and even an author!  I'm waiting for her to join NASA, (just kidding) but it goes to show that she's willing to try many things to be successful.  Modeling is a great but rather short career and thankfully, Tyra moved on to other areas in order to stay in the game so to speak.

Tyra was born on December 4th, 1973 in Inglewood, CA.  Her mother Carolyn London is a medical photographer, while her father, Donald Banks is a computer consultant.  She also has an older brother Devin who is currently in the Air Force.  Her parents divorced when she was 6 years old.  In high school, Tyra experienced what we would call an "ugly duckling" phase.  Tyra was teased mercilessly for her size, she was very skinny in high school.  High school, in general, is pure hell (speaking from experience).  If you're not part of the norm, in regards to appearance and the coolness factor, kids would tease and harass their peers, making their experience unbearable.  

There's always a silver lining because Tyra started modeling at age 15.  Sadly she was rejected by many modeling agencies, mainly because she's black and apparently they met their black girl quota which is still practiced till this day although, nowadays diversity is becoming a thing in the fashion world and more models of color are hired in many shows but behind the scenes, it's still very pale.  It remains to be seen if diversity in the fashion world will be here to stay or it's just a trend.  Tyra finally got hired by L.A Models and resumed her modeling career.  She eventually moved to Elite Model Management and moved to Europe (Wikipedia).  In 1991, she was booking 25 shows left to right in Paris Fashion Week and she appeared in many magazines including Vogue, Elle, Harper's Bazaar and Vanity Fair.  She also appeared in many campaigns for fashion designers including Chanel, Oscar De La Renta, Tommy Hilfiger, Dolce and Gabbana among others.  She was even a Victoria's Secret Angel and appeared in the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit issue (Wikipedia).    

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Now back to her modeling career in Paris.  As I mentioned above, Tyra was booking 25 shows in Paris Fashion Week.  However, there was another black Supermodel on the scene; Naomi Campbell. Also, keep in mind that model agencies do not hire many black women.  And the media took notice of this and instigated a rivalry between Tyra and Naomi.  Look out Naomi, Tyra is coming to take your spot!  Well, let just say bacchanal start!! In 1992, Naomi allegedly told the designer Karl Lagerfeld (RIP) to ban Tyra from the catwalk, threatening to walk off from the show if she showed up.  She allegedly forced John Casablancas, founder of Elite Models to drop Tyra (www.jezebel.com)

I could only imagine how Tyra felt at the time.  There she was, a young girl trying to make it in a cutthroat industry, only to be hampered by a fellow black woman.  As they say, all skin folk ain't kinfolk.  Don't get me wrong, I like Naomi. She worked her butt off in an industry that is unkind to black women and other POC.  She even made supermodel status.  However, her attitude stinks in my opinion and by many reports, she was very difficult to work with even as Tyra left the industry, going as far as assaulting her co-workers. Not excusing her bad behavior but it was a way to cope with an industry which seemed glamorous and excited on the outside, can be very demanding physically and mentally, more so for the few black models in the industry who had to endure the racist mentality from designers and model agents.   

Nonetheless, this left Tyra scarred for a while and it could possibly be the reason why she left her European modeling gig and went back to modeling in the States.  Tyra eventually became an actress and she performed in many shows and movies including Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Love and Basketball, Ugly Coyote, etc. She even had a talk show, The Tyra Banks Show, which aired from 2005 to 2010 and it won 2 Daytime Emmys.  I wished it was still on the air but sadly it was canceled when the CW channel became gentrified.  

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However, she was famous for creating and producing a reality series, America's Next Top Model, which exposed contestants to in and outs of the modeling industry. I sometimes questioned the challenges that the contestants have to endure or in the case of contestant winner, Danielle Evans of cycle 6, who had her gap fixed and she was criticized for her southern accent. Or Tyra and the rest of the panel's disdain for Yaya's Afrocentric identity.  Honestly, the winners are mostly commercial models, not necessarily editorial and they often turned to other pursuits such as acting and music.  Well, the show wouldn't be famous without some bacchanal and some models were bumping heads, eerily similar to what Tyra went through in the past.  Nonetheless,  the show became successful in its own right and there are even international versions, including Canada's Next Top Model, Britain's Next Top Model, Africa's Next Top Model and Caribbean's Next Top Model among others.  Interestingly enough, it was in Africa's Next Top Model, a winner Aamito Lugum from Uganda, who is an editorial model and she has modeled in many shows, magazines and campaigns including Lacoste, Marc Jacobs, Balenciaga, H&M and various editions of Vogue and Elle among others.  I really enjoyed the show and I was disappointed that they didn't show season 2.

Tyra Banks has shown the world that she is a resilient and entrepreneurial woman and I admired her for that.  She went through hell just to show the beauty of black women in the fashion world even when the naysayers say otherwise.  I wish her all the best in the future and again happy birthday!  Don't forget to smize!!