Early Years
Tyra Lynn Banks was born December 4, 1973 in Inglewood, California. She is the daughter of Caroline a medical photographer, and her father Donald Banks, a computer consultant. Tyra’s grew up with her parents being divorced. This happened when she was only 6 years old, but she says that she was too young for the divorce to even have much impact on her childhood. She also has a brother named Devin, who is five years older than her. When it came to who Tyra was going to live with, it didn’t come to much complication. She lived with her mother on weekdays and her father on weekends. She saw this as the good life she not only always had two birthday parties but also two Christmases, which meant double the presents, and double the love. Growing up, Tyra was often displayed around her family’s home in Inglewood living in her mother’s duplex and walking around her mother’s heels. She always role played with her mother as being a model. She was inspired to become a model from watching the weekly CNN program called “Style with Elsa Klensch” and “House of Style.” Although she first wanted to become a veterinarian and wanted to attend veterinarian school she was wined over by the modeling world. Tyra attended John Burroughs Middle School and graduated in 1991 from Immaculate Heart High School , a Catholic all girls school in the Los Feliz section of Los Angeles. During her Middle School days she was somewhat of a mean girl in middle school. She was popular and always in the gossip. Tyra says, “And if I didn’t want one of the other girls to be in the clique anymore, for whatever tiny little reason, I voted her out.”1 This being said she wasn’t the nicest person to be around with if you were not liked by the

Searching Opportunities popular Tyra Banks. Although when high school came along so did a growth spurt. She was now that girl that was not like by the popular one. She didn’t have the ideal high school life you would think she’d had if you look at her now. Rather her classmates teased her because of her increasing height of 5'11" and her weight which was around 125 lbs. This left her tall skinny and clumsy looking and gave her classmates a reason to make fun of her by giving her a nickname, “giraffe”1. Some days she used to run home crying to ask her mother for help. "I went from being the popular girl who looked normal, to being considered a freak,"2 Tyra states. In addition Tyra says that the teasing and abuse taught her the importance of kindness.
In 1989 at the age of 17, she outgrew her awkward phase and began to resemble a tall, curvy, caramel skin, green eyed African American beauty. Thinking it might be a good way to do some traveling. Tyra decided to became a model, and she started working hard in order to change her skinny physique. Since her mother was a photographer, putting a portfolio together was not a problem. Banks took her book to agencies but as her mother said, “The market for black models was not very good. They would say, we have this many black girls already.”3 As a result, her first attempt to find a modeling agency was met with rejection and discrimination. The agency said she looked too ethnic, or they already had a black model and didn’t want another. After being rejected one too many times, Tyra decided to go ahead with her backup plan to start college and study film. She was accepted at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, but one day Tyra was walking down the street two weeks before classes started when a model scout from France spotted her. The scout offered her immediate work for the upcoming fall couture shows in Paris and Tyra happily accepted. The scout said, "Her sensual lope and sleek, space-age frame gave her

Struggles through Modeling instant catwalk charisma, she was just born with grace.”4 Who would have thought they would see beauty in her tall skinny clumsy figure once thought to look like a giraffe now is admired by the top scouts in Paris Modeling world.
Tyra's first step as an Elite's model was heading to Paris. This is where she started to develop her career. She became a model for major fashion brands such as Oscar de la Renta, Ralph Lauren and Chanel. Tyra went sky high with the ranks of fashion modeling to become one of the world's top supermodels. She booked 25 runway shows while in Paris which was not common for a new bee in the industry. These were Tyra’s early modeling days though even though everything seemed planned out for her they were though. Business in the modeling world was difficult for her.
She was faced with racism. Racism was brought mostly by the industry itself. From the start Tyra was often called the new Naomi Campbell. She was being compared to one of the most experienced black supermodels who was known to be the famous woman of color on the runways for some years. The famous Ms. Campbell was known to be not one of the nicest persons out there, she had a fierce attitude and when she saw competition she felt threatened; therefore, she did everything she could so that Tyra would not appear in a Chanel show and always refused to speak with Tyra. Tyra took this as a stepping stone to this Industry, although she thought no 17 year old African American girl in the fashion business had to go what she had to go through.
Yet being an African American model in an industry that was mostly ran by Caucasians was difficult. "It's long overdue that black models receive the same benefits as white models,"5 Tyra said. She states that she still doesn’t make as much money as the white supermodels do. Rather than waiting for the industry to catch up, Tyra made her own plans
Peek of Modeling Career for a career. She formed a corporation in 1991 Tygirl, Inc to manage her career. Despite of all the racist comments and fierce competition Tyra made it to the top. After her traveling to Paris she returned to the United States. That trip opened doors for her she never would have thought of being open. She was the first African American model to deal with the company and so established a contract with Cover Girl Cosmetics in 1993 as well as a contract with Victoria Secret. She was also seen in some advertisements, posing for Swatch, Dolce & Gabbana, Nike, Pepsi, and Tommy Hilfiger. What most made her shine was in1994 when People Magazine crowned her as one of the 50 Most Beautiful People in the World.
What Tyra was most famous for was in the middle of the 1990s, Tyra began to gain weight. The worst possible thing it can happen to a model. Instead of her starving herself to fit the model figure they were looking for high fashion models; indeed, Tyra decided to switch to swimwear and lingerie modeling, where curvier models are more welcomed and accepted. Tyra was proud to make a living of her own not being the average weight a model should be. This is exactly the moment when she got famous even though she was considered over 20-30 pounds overweight for she brought the most sells in what she was modeling.
In 1996, Tyra's career reached the top, as she was the first black model to appear on the cover of Sport's Illustrated Swimsuit Edition. This opportunity raised her status as an exclusive supermodel as well as making her to reach great fame. This mesmerizing model continued to amaze people by showing up in Gentlemen's Quarterly magazine known as GQ, once more being the first African American model to be the cover of a magazine and once again being mentioned as one of the World's Most Beautiful People by People Magazine. She gained more popularity when Victoria's Secret included her in its catalogue,

Retirement leading her to achieve Michael Award as Supermodel of the Year in 1997and also won two Teen Choice Awards for Favorite Supermodel.
During her crazy and busy activities as the world’s top supermodel, Tyra had also found time to get herself involved in acting. She started from a small role in the British TV program, "Inferno and then took part in a famous comedy series of the 90s, "The Fresh
Prince of Bel Air" together with Will Smith. She finally then got a role in the movie "Higher Learning" in which she earned good review from the critics, proving that she was not just an ordinary supermodel. Afterwards, she appeared in some well known movies like "Love Stinks,” "Coyote Ugly," "Halloween: Resurrection”and” Eight Crazy Nights “all helping her career in film.
Tyra finally reached her age of thirty two years old and decided to retire while still having her Top Supermodel title. She often said in interviews its best to retire than to get kicked out. It was smart of her to do that even though she had hardly any time with her modeling career with two of her famous TV shows her daily talk show and "America's Next Top Model." Her final catwalk down the runway was the Victoria's Secret show. It was her retirement walk and she walk down wearing a red lace bra and underwear with a belt made of military style medallions. It was a memorable show and I will never for get it.
After her retirement she established her own TV production called "Bankable Productions", in 2003 she worked with UPN to produce "American Next Top Model", her reality TV show . The show helps aspiring models against each other in a competition for the label of America's Next Top Model, it was the highest-rated show through its first six seasons. The show has run for 15 seasons and continues to draw enormous television audiences. Tyra eventually expanded into daytime television with her own talk show, The

Continued Success
Tyra Show launched in 2005. The show's most famous moment came in February 2007right after several unflattering pictures of Tyra in a bathing suit being exploded in magazines. I remember watching this episode when Tyra stepped on her stage wearing the same bathing suit and told critics to "Kiss my fat ass!"
Tyra also worked to help young women deal with self-esteem issues through her show, even when she was only 19 years old; Tyra funded a scholarship to help young black women attend her alma mater. In 1998 she wrote Tyra's Beauty Inside & Out a book was meant to inspiring young women and a year later she founded TZONE, a foundation aimed at developing teenage girls' independence and self-esteem. Tyra has not only inspired other young girls but also m self. Her motivating quotes always help me get through any hard obstacles that come through my path. One of my favorite is “I’m competitive with myself. I always try to push past my own borders” If you don’t push yourself no one else will.

Table of Contents
Early Years……………………………………………………………………………………………………………. Page 1
Searching Opportunities………………………………………………………………………………………….Page 2
Struggles through Modeling…………………………………………………………………………….………Page 3
Peek of Modeling Career………………………………………………………………………………………….Page 4
Retirement……………………………………………………………………………………………………………..Page 5
Continued Success…………………………………………………………………………………………………..Page 6

Introduction
Tyra Banks is an American model and businesswoman. There are a lot of great models in the world, models that have made a difference in young aspiring models’ lives. Naomi Campbell, Heidi Klum, and Beverly Johnson are some examples. Tyra Banks is an American model and business woman. She first became famous as a model in Paris, Milan, London, Tokyo, and New York, but television appearances were her major success. Many say that Tyra Banks is the best supermodel of all time. She produces a show that helps young ladies become successful models she is the creator and host of the reality television show America's Next Top Model, co-creator of True Beauty, and host of her own talk show, The Tyra Banks Show. In this essay I will be explaining her life success from when she was made fun of her body figure to becoming one of the Top Supermodels of the world. I will also put my research on how she became one of the first African Americans to receive a contract with the top modeling industries and became a icon for the most beautiful black African American woman.

Conclusion

Tyra Banks Byanka Ordo

African American Kwaku Person-Lynn, Ph. D. Spring 2012 East Los Angeles College Bibliography 1. http://www.infoplease.com/biography/var/tyrabanks.html 2. Gliatto, Tom “Tyras Story” People Magazine (May 1994) 3.