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Tyra Banks
By Clint CatalystPhoto By DEYONKER/JBGPHOTO.COM
Tyra Banks won’t call herself an icon, but that’s okay. Millions of other people worldwide have already anointed her with the title—along with a list of comparable sobriquets, including: role model, goddess, superstar, and phenomenon.
Take your pick of these adulatory terms, and Tyra’s résumé alone will prove she’s earned it. Not only was she the first African- American model to grace the covers of both GQ—for which she was also named Woman of the Year in 2000—and the annual Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue (a feat she accomplished twice), along with the cover of the lingerie catalog quite likely viewed by more men than women, Victoria’s Secret, but she also was the recipient of the esteemed Michael Award for Supermodel of the Year, the fashion industry’s equivalent of the Oscar. And now that the May 2006 issue of TIME magazine placed her within the ranks of their 100 Most Influential People in the World, Tyra has achieved another milestone and shattered another stereotype. In other words, Banks is living proof that even philanthropists can be breathtakingly beautiful.
Referred to by many of her industry peers as “the only megamodel who possesses humility,” that inimitable mix of the glamazon and the grounded is Tyra all over. And seriously, with her boundless charisma and brilliant business sense, why would she need to call herself an icon, anyway?
At least Tyra will acknowledge the role others have played in her life. “Growing up,” she recalls, “my icons were Iman and Cindy Crawford. Iman epitomized the ultimate sultry feline: a combination of sensuality and confidence; whereas Cindy Crawford represented that ‘Woman Next Door That You Could Never Have.’ I grew up looking at Cindy and her keen business sense, wanting to be like that myself.”
Of her ability to emulate Crawford’s success—if not, dare we say, supersede it—there is no doubt. As co-creator and executive producer of the glamorously cutthroat reality series America’s Next Top Model, she set ratings records for UPN (which recently merged with the WB into the CW network, which chose ANTM as its launch program). As host of the syndicated daytime talkie The Tyra Banks Show, she navigates the tricky transition from couture maven to accessible talk-show host seamlessly. Unlike some of the chatterbox competitors, The Tyra Banks Show features a “nighttime to daytime” mix of celebrity guests and real people discussing real issues, especially those affecting young women. In other words, as the expression goes, Tyra’s not afraid to “dip into the population.”
You’d be hard-pressed to find a household that doesn’t know her name, yet not everyone who knows Tyra as “The Model” is aware of the extensive outreach work she does. In 1992, when Miss Banks was still a teenager herself, she established the Tyra Banks Scholarship—a fund that grants eligible African-American females the opportunity to attend her alma mater, Immaculate Heart High School, a private all-girls school in Los Angeles.
In 1999, Tyra established the TZONE Foundation, an annual summer camp facilitated by her to affirm and empower teen girls from diverse cultural backgrounds. What started as a weeklong program for around 300 adolescents a year from the greater Los Angeles area is currently transitioning into a national grantmaking foundation. According to the Foundation, their mission is “to build a sisterhood movement among women and girls by raising funds and making grants to community-based nonprofits that serve low-income, disadvantaged women and girls. The foundation is committed to supporting visionary organizations that enable women and girls to achieve their full potential.”
It comes as no surprise that a group of devoted Tyra followers have followed the Paris Is Burning prototype and conferred honorary “mother” status upon her for a “Legendary House of Banks.” When asked if she was aware such an informal affiliation of fans existed, Tyra quipped with a sparkle in her eye and a friendly snap: “It’s Le Banks!” Then, after a little laugh, she adds, “House of Le Banks!”
House of Le Banks it is: we’re just living in it.