A Quote by Tyra Banks

It was really hurtful to me. I get so much mail from young girls who say, 'I look up to you, you're not as skinny as everyone else, I think you're beautiful.' So when they say that my body is 'ugly' and 'disgusting,' what does that make those girls feel like?
Years ago, when I first started wearing hair extensions, I would get mail from young girls, or young girls would come up to me and they would say, 'Tyra you have the most beautiful hair, like I could never grow hair like that!' And I would say 'Child, this is a weave!'
I find it very sad that so many girls who look up to me are young women of color who have been told that they are ugly, and who feel that they are not normal...I think it's so important that women look like me find that they can be beautiful or objects of love, attention and affection.
There's those young girls that I once was, looking up to Mia Hamm, Christine Lilly, all those players, and I know how much of an effect they had on me. Knowing that, I feel like I'm in a position where I can really help be a positive influence in girls' lives.
I don't like girls who wear lots of make-up and you can't see their face. Some girls are beautiful but insecure and look much better without the make-up, but decide to put loads on. I like girls with nice eyes and a nice smile.
My fan interactions are really, really special. They're one of the highlights of this job for me, because I go out and do these conventions all across the world and meet all of these young girls - girls that look like me, and girls that look nothing like me, that are excited and empowered to see a woman of color on television. I'm really grateful for the fans that I have.
As a teenager I was really self-conscious because I was so much taller than everyone else. And in Australia there weren't many black girls around - there definitely weren't any dark girls on TV - so I didn't really have anyone to look up to.
For me, when I have those moments of getting down on my body - let's say, for example, my stomach doesn't look my stomach before I had kids, just saying - that bums me out, so I really have to shift that negative into a positive and get really grateful for the fact that my body delivered me two amazing little girls.
At school I got teased because I was so thin and awkward-looking. But the girls on TV looked similar to me. I would say to my mum, 'The girls at school are teasing me, but I look like those girls on TV.'
I was one of the only girls in my high school that didn't get [a nose job]. And if anybody needed it, I probably did... I'm proud to be on a positive show and to be a voice for girls and say, 'You don't need to look like everybody else. Love who you are.'
Girls would say: "I have a boyfriend for that." So in addition to putting their pleasure literally into someone else's hands - an inept teenage boy - these are the same girls who say they do not climax with a partner. It's the opposite with boys; they say because they can do that themselves, girls should perform oral sex.
I think that is a really good message, especially for young girls to hear. The fact that someone like me from the western suburbs of Sydney could become an actress in movies who didn't look like a regular actress, and that I can make it I think gives a lot of hope to other girls who are really creative and don't necessarily follow the standard of what some people consider beauty to be.
I want to look my best, but I'm not a model. I'm not an actress. I'm representing normal girls. It's OK to have a little bit of curve. I'm happy with my body. So many girls come up to me and say, "Thank you for being normal," and I'm proud of that.
I like the laid-back ladies. Looks are stressed so much these days, and a lot of girls feel they need to do all of these weird and wonderful things to look good, and they really don't. The best-looking girls don't do anything; they just sort of know they're beautiful, especially in jeans and a hoodie.
You see, there weren't these magazines like 'Heat' in my day. Always waiting to trip up these pretty girls and make them seem something horrible, something to make them look stupid and small and ugly and disgusting.
I don’t care about being stick-thin. I don’t want stuff to jiggle. Really skinny actresses make me hungry — I see them and think 'Honey, you need to eat!' I’m lucky I don’t have to live like that. I feel my best when I’m a toned, not flabby, size 8. Women come up to me and say, ‘You’re beautiful and confident, and that makes me feel I can be, too.’
I was always a little bit chubbier than everyone else. But I would feel pain for some of the other girls, who were so young and felt they had to be so skinny. They'd be living in the model apartments, totally wrapped up in this whole world. And it made me more sad than anything.
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