Top 270 Quotes & Sayings by Tyra Banks

Explore popular quotes and sayings by an American model Tyra Banks.

Last updated on December 3, 2024.

Tyra Lynne Banks, also known as BanX, is an American television personality, model, businesswoman, producer, actress, and writer. Born in Inglewood, California, she began her career as a model at the age of 15, and was the first African-American woman to be featured on the covers of GQ and the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue, on which she appeared three times. She was a Victoria's Secret Angel from 1997 to 2005. By the early 2000s, Banks was one of the world's top-earning models.

American - Model | Born: December 4, 1973

Source: Wikipedia

I created 'America's Next Top Model' one-hundred percent. I was in my kitchen making tea one morning, and I looked out the window, and the idea popped into my head. I wanted it to be 'American Idol' meets 'Ford Supermodel of the Year' meets 'The Real World.'

Tyra Banks

I try to keep my private life kind of private.

Tyra Banks

Believe it or not, I don't wake up looking like a supermodel.

Tyra Banks

I have so many goals.

Tyra Banks

I wish I was harder; I wish I didn't care so much about being the nice girl all the time because a lot of the time people can take kindness for weakness, so I wish I had a little bit more 'oomph' in me.

Tyra Banks

On 'America's Top Model,' I've always told my girls to smile with their eyes. We call it 'smizing.' Over the years, it's actually become part of pop culture. I would be walking down the street, and girls would say, 'Smize!'

Tyra Banks

A while ago I said that, 'You know, I like a guy - he doesn't have to be all rich and famous - he can be normal.' And I remember I was walking in the mall, and this guy was like, 'Tyra, I'm normal. I live with my mama. I ain't got a car and I ain't got a job! I'm real normal.' And I'm like, 'That's not normal - that's a loser!'

Tyra Banks

Global warming will threaten our crops, so natural food will be scarce. Hourglass, curvy bodies will be the aspirational beauty standard, representing that those women have access to bounties of fulfilling yet healthy food, which means they are affluent.

Tyra Banks

With 'America's Next Top Model,' I've always cast girls who the industry might call 'plus size' but I like to call 'fiercely real.' That was always important to me.

Tyra Banks

I became a victim of mean girls. I became the victim of myself.

Tyra Banks

One thing my mom used to tell me was to look to the other side, and know that my present is not going to be everything. So if I'm having a bad day, she goes, 'Just imagine tomorrow. This is going to be over. This is going to be done with.'

Tyra Banks

We are often told we can't have brains and beauty, and I really hope that my message is that you can put on that red lip and curl your hair and put on that power dress - you don't have to sacrifice one for the other.

Tyra Banks

Blue and green eyes will be so common that dark brown will become the rare and newly desired eye color.

Tyra Banks

I'm all about zagging when everyone else is zigging.

Tyra Banks

I was always a good student. I wasn't the A-plus student, but I studied really hard, and I probably had a 3.2. I always wished that I had the capacity to get straight A's, but I didn't. I didn't beat myself up about it, but I really studied hard for my grades.

Tyra Banks

My aunt used to call me light bulb head because my head is small at the bottom and bigger at the top. But it was a term of endearment.

Tyra Banks

Rihanna told me her parents used to argue so intensely, she used to get these headaches, these migraines that were almost not even treatable with medicine. The moment her parents separated, her migraines went away.

Tyra Banks

I have a long list of different smiles that you can do, and every model should be equipped. Everybody can't handle the long list... That's for, you know, advanced.

Tyra Banks

There's always going to be dreams and goals I have, but I never really tell people what they are.

Tyra Banks

I don't want to use the term 'plus-size,' because, to me, what the hell is that? It just doesn't have a positive connotation to it. I tend to not use it.

Tyra Banks

I'm frugal. I've always been this way. When I was young, my mom would give me my allowance, and I'd peel off a little each week and have some to spare.

Tyra Banks

Just because you don't know if other people are experiencing the same thing as you are, it doesn't mean that it's not happening. Everybody doesn't necessarily share everything. Just know that what you're going through, other people are going through it, too.

Tyra Banks

I haven't seen the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame, the Louvre. I haven't seen anything. I don't really care.

Tyra Banks

Smiles come naturally to me, but I started thinking of them as an art form at my command. I studied all the time. I looked at magazines, I'd practice in front of the mirror and I'd ask photographers about the best angles. I can now pull out a smile at will.

Tyra Banks

I used to have this joke: 'Every hallway is a runway.'

Tyra Banks

I love the confidence that makeup gives me.

Tyra Banks

Kim Kardashian and Kris Jenner have the exact same eyes.

Tyra Banks

Black women have always been these vixens, these animalistic erotic women. Why can't we just be the sexy American girl next door?

Tyra Banks

I just think, as a model, it's taught me to be a master of deception and illusion.

Tyra Banks

I feel more comfortable when I'm lighter - I sleep better, I snore less, I have more endurance when I work out, my arms look better.

Tyra Banks

I would not recommend a teen getting into modeling if they're not solid when it comes to their grades and school. That comes first. My mother always told me that came first.

Tyra Banks

The future is in photos for social media. More and more people are not reading, so I try to attach a photo to most Tweets.

Tyra Banks

I enjoy doing fashion shows and transforming myself into different looks for photo shoots.

Tyra Banks

Self-love has very little to do with how you feel about your outer self. It's about accepting all of yourself.

Tyra Banks

The fire to inspire women and help them to blaze new paths fiercely burns inside of me.

Tyra Banks

If you can think psychographically and not demographically, you can really target a lot more audiences.

Tyra Banks

My freshman year, I ran for student class president and lost. The next year, I ran for student class vice president, and I won.

Tyra Banks

Sometimes I'll use four or five different photo apps on one photo just to get it where I want it to be.

Tyra Banks

I always feel great when I don't have clothes on.

Tyra Banks

With the whole supermodel thing, even when you're not really modeling anymore, people still call me that. And I'm like '... retired.'

Tyra Banks

The runway symbolizes something in society that's very intimidating to women.

Tyra Banks

I'm very human.

Tyra Banks

I talked about adopting a baby when I was 20 years old, before it became 'hip.'

Tyra Banks

Don't save bold lashes and red lips for nighttime - do it in the day!

Tyra Banks

It's so important to understand your good attendance ups your chances of graduating.

Tyra Banks

Flaws are awesome - so, 'flawsome!' I love making up a word.

Tyra Banks

A smart model is a good model.

Tyra Banks

Paris is one of the most beautiful places in all the world. Unfortunately, I was so homesick I couldn't appreciate its beauty.

Tyra Banks

I don't have to have a child come from my womb to have a connection. Children that are already born are beautiful to me. I can definitely be a mother to them.

Tyra Banks

I don't know how to be sexy on a date. Put up a camera and a wind machine, and I'll give you sexy. Put me at a dinner table with some candlelight and the moon shining in and, oh, I will give you dork.

Tyra Banks

When I was a young girl, I lost a lot of weight over one summer - involuntarily - and was just really depressed and sad. There was nothing I could do to gain weight. I would look in the mirror and call myself disgusting every day.

Tyra Banks

I know I'm an overachiever, and I'm not apologetic about it.

Tyra Banks

I want to be like the athletes who seem stuck in time. When you see them at 50, you say they probably can still run like a champ.

Tyra Banks

You've got to learn to accept the fool in you as well as the part that's got it goin' on.

Tyra Banks

Because beauty will be so readily accessible, and skin color and features will be similar, prejudices based on physical features will be nearly eradicated. Prejudice will be socioeconomically based.

Tyra Banks

Stop saying these negative things about yourself. Look in the mirror and find something about yourself that's positive and celebrate that!

Tyra Banks

My mom was a medical photographer, but on the side, she did a before-and-after glam photography business in the house. She would do makeup and hair - and I was her assistant.

Tyra Banks

I've always seen modeling as a stepping stone.

Tyra Banks

I don't have the best self esteem; mine wavers month to month, but I know how to pick myself up.

Tyra Banks

I'm not sure exactly how gossiping about my life with my audience really helps them.

Tyra Banks