# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
When one thinks of a hero they would probably think of a superhero like superman or batman. But when it comes to a Non-Fictional hero, a person like Tyra Banks should come up to your mind, right? Tyra Banks is my hero because she is a leader that speaks her mind and is an inspiration to young women nation-wide. She supports many of these young women in her organizations.

Tyra Lynne Banks was born December 4th, 1973 in Los Angeles. She is the daughter of Carolyn London and Donald Banks, and the little sister of Devin Banks, born in 1968. Her mother was a fashion manager and medical photographer while her father was a computer consultant. In 1980, when Tyra was only six years old, her parents got divorced. The relationship between the parents and brother stayed friendly. Even though Tyra was only six when this happened, she managed to stay strong.

Tyra's passion for acting and modeling was decided since she was a kid growing up. Tyra landed her first gig playing a reoccurring character on "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air" as Will Smith's old friend, Jackie Ames. Other screen credits include Felicity, Mad TV, Coyote Ugly and The Price Is Right as one of Bob Barker's Beauty.

At the age of 17, Tyra was discovered in her home town of Los Angeles by Cover Girl to be a model. She was offered a healthy contract with the cosmetics company. Tyra became the third African American to secure such an opportunity. With her striking looks, Tyra appeared on over 20 fashion magazines covers. Most notable of these are GQ, Sports Illustrated and Victoria's Secret Catalogues. Banks became the first African American woman ever to grace these magazine covers.

In May 2005, Tyra retired from modeling to concentrate on her two TV shows, America's Next Top Model and the Tyra Banks Show. The Tyra Banks Show, also known as Tyra, premiered on September 12, 2005. This program is aimed at young women. The show features the stories of everyday people, usually women facing issues today and celebrity interviews, similar to the Oprah Winfrey Show. Tyra promotes her show using her personal flashbacks of her own childhood and adolescence. Oprah was a big inspiration for the show and helped her in the making of the show. In 2007, the show, in its third season, moved from Los Angeles to New York City. In late January 2008, Tyra Banks started to work on a new reality TV show based on fashion magazines. Currently, Tyra is living in Manhattan, New York City since she is filming her talk show in New York City.

Tyra is also a supporter for many causes. She is passionate about environmental issues and has her own organization called T-Zone, established in 1999. T-Zone is a week long summer camp for teenage girls to enhance their independence and self-esteem. She is also the founder of "The Tyra Banks Scholarship." This is a fund that grants African American girls the opportunity attend Immaculate Heart High School, an all-girl private school located in Los Angeles.

Tyra Banks is My Hero because she inspires me along with many young women today. When, at one time, Tyra weighed 168 pounds, photos were taken of her in a swim suit. Tabloids made fun of her calling her "Tyra Pork Chop" and "Tyra is Fat." She fought back at the rude comments and she said "It wasn't so much the picture, it was the negative comments. If it was just the pictures and it went away I'd be like, 'Ha Ha. Whatever' to call that ugly, so many girls are seeing that and I needed to let them know that's not ugly." She also said "I get so much mail from young girls who say 'I look up to you, you're not as skinny as everyone else, and I think you're beautiful.' So when they say that my body is 'ugly' and 'disgusting,' what does that make those girls feel like?" Tyra cares very much about her influence to young women and strives to make them feel alright with themselves and their body image. Tyra once said "I think it's important for young women to understand my flaws." and "I'm a perfectionist, sometimes I have to remind myself that it's ok if there are flaws here and there." When she said those quotes that made me feel better about myself. She proves that no one is perfect, including the rich and famous. Everyone has trouble with their image. Tyra Banks is dedicated to helping young women by speaking her mind out towards them. To me and many other young women, that is what makes her a hero.
The beliefs, viewpoints and opinions expressed in this hero submission on the website are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the beliefs, viewpoints and opinions of The MY HERO Project and its staff.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
When one thinks of a hero they would probably think of a superhero like superman or batman. But when it comes to a Non-Fictional hero, a person like Tyra Banks should come up to your mind, right? Tyra Banks is my hero because she is a leader that speaks her mind and is an inspiration to young women nation-wide.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Tyra Banks talks about her start as a model.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Born on the December 4, 1973, Tyra Lynne Banks is one of the most famous American television personalities. Better known for her flawless career as a model, she has also been a producer, actress and author. She appeared twice on the cover for Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue and was one of Victoria's Secrets' first angels. She is a native of Inglewood, California and she has one brother, Devin who is five years older to her. She was six when her parents got divorced and was often the target of calls such as "ugly duckling" but she shed thirty pounds and grew three inches within three months when she turned eleven.

Tyra Banks started her career as a model when she was fifteen years old. She was still a school going girl at that time. She faced rejection in her early career; more specifically, she was rejected by four agencies. However at 16, she switched to Elite Model Management and once she got an opportunity to move to Milan, she did while putting college on hold. She was a massive success in the 1991 Paris Fashion Week and booked a total of twenty five shows. She did runway shows for Chanel, Fendi, Valentino and others.

From runway modeling, Banks shifted to advertisements and magazine covers. She did commercials for Dolce & Gabbana, Ralph Lauren and Nike. She was on the cover of Teen Vogue, Vogue as well as Elle. After taking Europe by storm, she moved back to United States. Once back, she was the first African American woman to be on the covers of GQ and Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue and was the recipient of the VH1 "Supermodel of the Year" award in 1997. She was also one of the first ever African-American to be chosen as Victoria's Secret cover for the catalog. After her move back to the states, she started with her career in films and television. She has also been repeatedly ranked in the list of The World's Most Influential People by TIME magazine.

Tyra's film and television career started with her being featured in The Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air. She plays Will Smith's old friend. She also starred in Felicity, All That, MADtv, Wild 'N Out and The Price Is Right. She also ventured into production and created "Ty Ty Baby Productions" later renamed "Bankable Productions". This production house is behind the magnanimous The Tyra Banks Show where she aimed at encouraging and enabling younger women to fulfill their dreams and destinies. It also produced America's Next Top Model and The Clique (2008). She was also judge and hostess for America's Next Top Model. Other notable accomplishments are Tyra Banks winning the Daytime Emmy Award for The Tyra Banks Show. She also won for the second time for Outstanding and Informative talk show in 2009.

Her first big break in the film industry came in 1994 in the movie called Higher Learning. She also costarred with Lindsay Lohan in Life-Size. Other movies include Love Stinks (1999), Coyote Ugly (2000) and Halloween: Resurrection (2002). She has guest starred in hit TV shows like Hannah Montannah and Gossip Girl. Along with the films and TV shows, Tyra Banks has also endeavored into music. She first featured in music videos then from 2004 onwards she recorded singles like " Shake Ya Body" and K.O.B.E as well as " Be a Star" for her movie Life-Size. In addition to this, Banks penned down a novel in 2012 called "Modelland" which is a description of her experiences as a model. She is also the patron of TZONE; a program designed for leadership and lifestyle development and established the Tyra Banks Scholarship as well.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Born on the December 4, 1973, Tyra Lynne Banks is one of the most famous American television personalities. Better known for her flawless career as a model, she has also been a producer, actress and author. She appeared twice on the cover for Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue and was one of Victoria's Secrets' first angels.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Info Print

Cite

Feedback

Share

Tyra Banks, in full Tyra Lynne Banks, (born December 4, 1973, Inglewood, California, U.S.), American fashion model and television personality best known as a face of the cosmetics company CoverGirl and the American lingerie, clothing, and cosmetics retailer Victoria's Secret, as well as for her daily television talk show, The Tyra Banks Show (2005-10), and for hosting the modeling competition series America's Next Top Model (2003-15, 2017- ).

Early life and modeling career

Banks was raised in Inglewood, a suburb of Los Angeles, where she attended a local all-girls Catholic school. Her father was employed as a computer consultant, and her mother worked as a photographer. Banks started modeling at age 15 and, with the help of her mother, assembled a modeling portfolio. At age 17 she began seeking professional representation from local modeling agencies. Despite initial rejection-allegedly because of her "ethnic" look-Banks signed in 1990 for professional representation with Elite Model Management, one of the world's top modeling agencies. Soon afterward she was featured in the leading teen magazine, Seventeen. After graduating from high school in 1991, Banks enrolled in Loyola Marymount University, but her plans changed when a French modeling scout offered her the opportunity to model high-fashion collections on the runways of Paris. Banks walked a record 25 shows in her first season and subsequently appeared on the cover of the Spanish edition of the leading fashion magazine Vogue, and she was soon christened the "new Naomi Campbell."

Banks started her own company to manage her career and thereafter patterned her career trajectory after that of her idol, supermodel Cindy Crawford, venturing into multiple industries. Banks was subsequently featured in a string of pop music videos including Michael Jackson's "Black or White" (1991), Tina Turner's "Love Thing" (1992), and George Michael's "Too Funky" (1992). In 1992 she returned from Paris, and in 1993 she was featured in a recurring role on several episodes of the television comedy series The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air (1990-96), a Will Smith vehicle. In the same year, she became a new face of CoverGirl, which catapulted her to the status of supermodel-a top fashion model who appears simultaneously on the covers of the world's leading fashion magazines and is globally recognized by first name only. In 1994 and again in 1996 she was named one of People magazine's "50 Most Beautiful People." She made her movie debut in the dramatic film Higher Learning (1995).

In the mid-1990s, because of her increasingly curvaceous figure, Banks began to lose runway assignments. Refusing to cave to industry pressure to lose weight, she instead shifted her focus toward modeling lingerie and swimwear, which typically favours models with more shapely physiques. She became the first African American woman to be featured on the cover of GQ magazine (February 1996), the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue (with fellow top model Valeria Mazza), and the Victoria's Secret catalog. In 1997 she became one of the original Victoria's Secret Angels-the brand's most visible spokesmodels. She subsequently launched her own film and television production company, Bankable Productions, and cofounded with her mother the Tyra Banks TZONE Foundation, dedicated to the advancement of opportunities for low-income and disadvantaged girls through the operation of various programs and services including self-esteem workshops. With Vanessa Thomas Bush she wrote Tyra's Beauty Inside & Out (1998), a collection of beauty, health, and fashion tips.

Television shows

In the early 21st century Banks continued to expand her career, appearing in Coyote Ugly (2000), a rowdy coming-of-age feature film, and releasing a music single, "Shake Ya Body" (2004), which garnered little attention.

In 2003 Banks signed on as the host and executive producer of America's Next Top Model, a weekly prime-time reality talent show that chronicled the search for a promising fashion model from a lineup of neophytes. It swiftly became one of the highest-rated shows in the history of the UPN (United Paramount Network). The show later aired on the CW, a network created when UPN merged with Warner Brothers' The WB. It became a cultural touchstone, with many of Banks's memorable neologisms working their way into the lexicon. Although America's Next Top Model was canceled in 2015, it returned the following year, airing on the cable channel VH1. Banks resumed hosting duties in 2017.

Banks premiered her own daily talk show, The Tyra Banks Show, in 2005. It focused on fashion, lifestyle, makeovers, and topical issues and featured Banks at the centre of a reality-show-like twist: in taped confessional segments she divulged her own struggles with a variety of issues, including low self-esteem and her inability to find and keep a suitable mate. She retired from modeling that same year. In both 2008 and 2009 The Tyra Banks Show won an Emmy Award for outstanding talk show in the newly created "informative" category. The program ended in 2010.

During this time, Banks continued to occasionally act, and she appeared on such TV shows as Gossip Girl, Glee, and Black-ish. In 2017 she began hosting the reality TV series America's Got Talent.

Banks participated in a number of unsuccessful ventures, including the reality television series True Beauty (2009-10), the Web site Type F (2011), which offered beauty and fashion advice, and the talk show FabLife (2015). She began offering her own line of cosmetics in 2014 and in 2015 launched a Web site that sold her makeup and dispensed tips on cosmetic application.

Jeannette L. Nolen The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Vogue, influential American fashion and lifestyle magazine. It was founded in 1892 as a weekly high-society journal, created by Arthur Baldwin Turnure for New York City's social elite and covering news of the local social scene, traditions of high society, and social etiquette; it also reviewed books, plays, and music....

Cindy Crawford, American fashion model and television personality who first gained fame in the 1980s and was among the first "supermodels." Crawford grew up in DeKalb, Illinois, near Chicago, where her father worked as...

Michael Jackson, American singer, songwriter, and dancer who was the most popular entertainer in the world in the early and mid-1980s. Reared in Gary, Indiana,...

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Tyra Banks | Biography, TV Shows, & Facts

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Tyra Banks, American fashion model and television personality best known as a face of the cosmetics company CoverGirl and of the lingerie and clothing retailer Victoria's Secret, as well as for hosting the modeling competition series America's Next Top Model (2003-15, 2017- ). Learn more about her life and career.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Page 1 of Tyra Banks biography and life story including childhood story, love relationship, career, walk of fame and more.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Who Is Tyra Banks?

Born on December 4, 1973, in Inglewood, California, Tyra Banks became a leading international fashion model and the first black woman to land on the cover of the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue. She later hosted the reality TV program America's Next Top Model and her own daytime talk show, for which she won two Emmy Awards. Banks has continued to expand her business interests, launching her own cosmetics line in 2014. Staring in 2017, Banks took over Nick Cannon's hosting duties on America's Got Talent.

Thanks for watching! Visit Website

Education

In her teen years, Banks attended Immaculate Heart High School in Los Angeles. In 2011, to help build her cosmetics brand Tyra Beauty, Banks enrolled at Harvard Business School, completing her special course for CEOs and other top executives in early 2012.

Modeling Career

By 1989, at the age of 17, Banks had outgrown her awkward phase and begun to resemble the tall, curvy, caramel-skinned and green-eyed beauty who would light up runways and magazine covers for years to come. However, her first attempts to find a modeling agency were met with rejection and discrimination. Banks remembers that one agency said she looked "too ethnic" and another said that it "already had a black woman and didn't want another."

Thanks for watching! Visit Website

Thanks for watching! Visit Website

Signing on With Elite Model Management

In 1990, while still in high school, Banks landed a contract with Elite Model Management, the largest modeling agency in the world. Later that year, she shot her first print piece for Seventeen magazine. After graduating from high school in 1991, Banks enrolled at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, but decided to forego college when Elite offered to send her to Paris for high-fashion runway modeling.

Banks rose swiftly through the ranks of fashion modeling to become one of the world's top supermodels. She booked 25 runway shows while in Paris in 1991, an unprecedented feat for a newcomer to the industry. But by the mid-1990s, Banks began to gain weight, a forbidden sin in the world of rail-thin clothing models. Unwilling to starve herself to achieve the desired physique for high-fashion models, Banks decided to return to the United States and switch to swimwear and lingerie modeling, where curvier models are more welcome. "I made my living being 20 or 30 pounds heavier than the average model," Banks says. "And that's where I got famous. Victoria's Secret said I sold more bras and panties than anybody else, and I was traipsing down that runway with 30 pounds more booty than the other girls."

'Sport Illustrated' to Victoria's Secret

In 1996, Tyra Banks became the first black woman to appear on the cover of GQ. A year later, she became the first African-American woman to appear on the cover of the Sports Illustrated swimsuit edition, as well as the first black woman to be featured in Victoria's Secret lingerie catalogue. She signed lucrative contracts with Cover Girl and Victoria's Secret, becoming a staple of both companies' advertising campaigns and runway shows. Named to People magazine's 50 Most Beautiful People list numerous times, Banks received the prestigious Michael Award for Supermodel of the Year in 1997, and also won two Teen Choice Awards for Favorite Supermodel.

Banks returned to the front of the Sports Illustrated swimsuit edition in 2019, 23 years after she first graced its cover.

Acting Work

In addition to her modeling, Banks began pursuing an acting career in the 1990s. She made her debut in 1993 with a seven-episode stint on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, and enjoyed a prominent role in the 1995 drama Higher Learning. In 2000 Banks appeared in a trio of popular films: Love & Basketball, Coyote Ugly and the made-for-television movie Life Size. Later TV work included appearances in Gossip Girl and Glee.

Reality TV and Talk Show

'America's Next Top Model'

In 2003 Banks ventured into the world of reality TV when she created, produced and hosted the UPN show America's Next Top Model. The show, which pits aspiring models against each other in a competition for the label of America's Next Top Model, was UPN's highest-rated show through its first six seasons. In 2006 Top Model was chosen to headline the newly created CW television network. The show, with more than 20 seasons under its belt, continues to draw enormous television audiences.

'The Tyra Banks Show'

Banks expanded into daytime television with her own talk show, The Tyra Show, in 2005. The show's most famous moment came in February 2007, shortly after several unflattering pictures of Banks in a bathing suit surfaced in tabloid magazines. Banks marched onstage wearing the same bathing suit and told critics to "Kiss my fat ass!" She picked up a Daytime Emmy Award for her work on the show in 2008 - a feat she repeated the following year as well. In 2010 Banks said goodbye to her talk show after five years on the air. She told People magazine that she decided to end her program to focus on "bringing positive images of women to the big screen."

'America's Got Talent'

Banks debuted a new talk show in September 2015 called FABLife, though she announced her departure just two months later. She later resurfaced to host the reality competition series America's Got Talent in 2017, as a replacement for Nick Cannon, and spent two seasons in the role.

Book and Businesswoman

In 2011 Banks published the best-selling novel Modelland, based on her life and experiences in the industry, and launched a style and beauty website called typeF.com. She also enrolled at Harvard Business School around this time, completing her special course for CEOs and other top executives in early 2012. The model-turned-entertainment-mogul has since founded the TYRA Beauty cosmetics line.

Erik Asla & Son

Banks, who rarely discusses her romantic life in public, has been involved with several celebrities over the years, including director John Singleton and basketball player Chris Webber. In January 2016, Banks and her long-time boyfriend, Norwegian photographer Erik Asla, welcomed a baby boy, York Banks Asla. Banks had previously revealed her trouble with infertility and their son was delivered via a surrogate mother.

In 2017 Banks and Asla called off their five-year relationship on amicable terms.

Banks is active in a number of social and charitable causes. One of her personal missions has been to help young women deal with self-esteem issues. As early as 1992, when she was only 19 years old, Banks funded a scholarship to help young black women attend her alma mater, the private Immaculate Heart High School in Los Angeles. In 1998, she wrote Tyra's Beauty Inside & Out, a book aimed at inspiring young women, and a year later she founded TZONE, a foundation aimed at developing teenage girls' independence and self-esteem.

Early Life

Supermodel Tyra Lynne Banks was born on December 4, 1973, in Inglewood, California. Her father, Don Banks, was a computer consultant and her mother, Carolyn, was a medical photographer. Banks' parents divorced when she was only six years old, but she says that she was too young for the divorce to negatively affect her. "As far as I could see, I had it made," Banks remembers. "I stayed with Mommy on the weekdays and Daddy on the weekends. I had two birthday parties, two Christmases. Double the presents, double the love."

Banks says that she developed a love for food - and not always healthy food - from a very young age, devouring fried chicken, candied yams and pork chops at family gatherings. "I was taught to enjoy food, not to fear it," Banks recalls. She developed healthier habits, too, and began working out with her mother's exercise group at the age of six. After her grandmother passed away from lung cancer, Banks also vowed never to smoke.

Banks confesses that she was somewhat of a "mean girl" in middle school. "I was popular, gossipy," she recalls, adding, "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." When Banks attended Immaculate Heart High School in Los Angeles, however, she found herself on the other end of the social food chain. A sudden growth spurt left her tall and gawky, and her classmates gave her cruel nicknames such as "Giraffe" and "Lightbulb Head." "I went from being the popular girl who looked normal, to being considered a freak," Banks remembers. Nevertheless, Banks says that the teasing and abuse taught her the importance of kindness. "It turned out that the best things [to happen to me] in my life were to be made fun of, and to have no friends, and to feel miserable every single day."

Videos

Fact Check

We strive for accuracy and fairness. If you see something that doesn't look right, contact us!

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Born on December 4, 1973, in Inglewood, California, Tyra Banks became a leading international fashion model and the first black woman to land on the cover of the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue. She later hosted the reality TV program America's Next Top Model and her own daytime talk show, for which she won two Emmy Awards.

# data[].attributes.body
1. The tone of the poem is angry or maybe someone being very firm.
2. The words that are used are angry and powerful. He uses "freedom", "democracy", "nor ever"
3. "and own the land" is an example of imagery because it says how he should be able to own land like everyone else.
4.The Authors message is don't sit back and wait but take a stand.
5. i can not relate to the author's message but i do agree that its better to stand up for what you believe instead of just waiting and hoping for a change.

# data[].attributes.body
In the harlem renaissance art work the colors were bright with little detail to the pictures which made you think more about what it was trying to tell you. I noticed most of them had to do with jazz music.