While hosting her hit model competition reality show America’s Next Top Model, Tyra Banks didn’t get right all the time. In fact, she said “some dumb sh*t.”
From creating the legendary show to blazing trails in the world of modeling and fashion, Banks’s 30-plus years as a supermodel and entrepreneur earned her the first-ever Luminary Spotlight Award at Essence Black Women in Hollywood.
During her acceptance speech, Banks admitted her shortcomings while hosting the 24 seasons of the show, according to Page Six.
“Did we get it right? Hell, no. I said some dumb sh*t. But I refuse to have my legacy be about some stuff linked together on the internet when there were 24 cycles of changing the world,” she said.
Banks made sure to first cite the legacy and influence of the show and the opportunities it provided to models from diverse backgrounds.
“And you guys have no idea how hard we fought to bring the diversity to that television show at a time when it didn’t exist, to show different beauties at a time when the world was like, ‘What? You casting that?’” she shared.
“A time when people in the fashion industry were telling me, ‘You putting the girls from the hood on your show?’ I was like, ‘Why can the girl from the trailer park become a supermodel, but the girl that’s chilin’ in the park in the hood can’t?’ And we fought, and we struggled, and we made it happen.”
America’s Next Top Model
premiered on UPN in May 2003 and ran for 24 seasons across various networks until 2018. It is currently available for streaming on platforms like Netflix and Hulu.The show is credited with helping to launch the careers of model/actresses such as Eva Marcille, Yaya DaCosta, and model Tocarra Jones.
“And I am so excited that I, and so many of us, have opened that door for others to follow,” she said in her speech. “And now my 51-year-old, dimpled, cellulite-covered bigger tummy and 10 million times bigger t*tt*es is walking through that door that I opened with all of us behind us on that runway saying, ‘Baby, it’s just the beginning.’”
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