Former runway model Tyra Banks has admitted her methods to cultivate new models missed the mark at times, but her impact on the fashion industry is far greater than the viral blunders.
The former Victoria’s Secret Angel gave a fiery speech at the Essence Black Women in Hollywood event on Feb. 27, where she addressed the backlash-plagued “America’s Next Top Model” franchise.
Banks launched the first-of-its-kind reality competition series in 2003 with the promise of finding a model worthy of a $100,000 prize, Revlon cosmetics and Wilhelmina Models contracts, as well as a photo spread featured in Marie Claire magazine.
The final season concluded in 2018. Of its 24 winners, two were men, Keith Carlos and Nyle DiMarco, who respectively won cycles 21 and 22.
The Sports Illustrated bombshell told the audience gathered at the Fairmont Century Plaza, “I fought, 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.”
The series began with women and grew to include male contestants — of all sizes, complexions, backgrounds and hair textures.
As she spoke about the glass ceilings she broke, Banks said it happened “at a time when the world was like, ‘What? You casting that?’ and ‘What is that?’ A time when people in the fashion industry were telling me, ‘Oh, you putting them girls in the hood on your show?’ I was like, ‘Why can the girl from the trailer park become a supermodel but the girl that’s chillin’ in the park in the hood can’t?’… We struggled, and we made it happen.”
Tyra said she DGAF about what y'all be saying on here 😭😭😭 pic.twitter.com/tHRdcqp26M
— Ichigo Niggasake (@SomaKazima) February 28, 2025
The “Life-Size” actress got real about her missteps too. “Did we get it right? Hell no, I said some dumb s—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.
For years now, clips spliced together from various early seasons highlighted the way Banks and her team of judges scrutinized women. But none of that, according to the OG supermodel, should erase how she contributed to reshaping the industry.
“We all evolve, we all get better together… and now my 51-year-old-dimple-cellulite-bigger-tummy-10 million-times-bigger titties is walking through that door that I opened with all of us being us on that runway saying, baby, it’s just beginning,” said Banks as the crowd applauded her accomplishments.
Tyra Banks is a villain. I hate that I let moments like this fly over my head back then. I am so convinced Tyra created ANTM to give herself the power to become what she said people in the fashion industry were to her in her early modeling days. https://t.co/SjkVNfT4Lk
— 𝙱𝚎𝚌𝚌𝚊 (@MJFINESSELOVER) November 18, 2021
A reaction to the circulating snippet defended Banks’ past ‘ANTM’ behaviors. That person wrote, “Quiet as it kept Tyra really showed y’all how the modeling industry really get down and how cut throat the industry was.” Someone else with a different sentiment insisted, “You were mean to them girls and they hated you.” A third person said it was “about time she take accountability.”
Multiple people said that the Los Angeles native would forever be an icon and that she “did what she had to do.” Banks got her start as a model at the age of 15. In a post-event Instagram upload, the founder of Smize & Dream artisan ice cream made it abundantly clear that she is “back to modeling” regardless of what her critics have to say.
