Tyra Banks acknowledged her past missteps on America’s Next Top Model during her speech at the ESSENCE Black Women in Hollywood Awards, stating: “I said some dumb shit.”
The event recognized Banks as its inaugural Luminary Spotlight recipient on Feb. 27, 2025.
“Over 20 years ago I created a show called America’s Next Top Model,” she began her speech. “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; to show different beauties at a time when the world was like, ‘What? You casting that?’ A time when people in the fashion industry were telling me, ‘You putting the girls from the hood on your show?”
“I was like, ‘Why can the girl from the trailer park become a supermodel but the girl that’s chilin’ in the park in the hood can’t?'” she added. “And we fought and we struggled and we made it happen.”
“Did we get it right? Hell no. I said some dumb shit,” Tyra continued. “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. And I am so excited that I, and so many of us, have opened that door for others to follow.”
“And now my 51-year-old, dimpled, cellulite-covered bigger tummy and 10 million times bigger titties is walking through that door that I opened with all of us behind us on that runway saying, ‘Baby, it’s just the beginning,'” she concluded.
The supermodel faced criticism in 2020 when the show’s availability on Amazon Prime Video sparked renewed scrutiny. Social media users shared footage of Banks critiquing contestants’ physical features, including dental gaps and similar characteristics.
Past contestants began revealing their experiences with Banks. “As much as we should applaud the subversive topics that ANTM has covered in its reign thus far — physical and sexual abuse, homelessness, female circumcision, gayness (hi!!) — we must also accept that there were moments when those issues were clearly exploited for entertainment value,” Kim Stolz expressed in her MTV piece (via Vox) in 2008.
Banks instructed Stolz to downplay her sexuality while pursuing her modeling career.
Additional allegations against Banks included harsh criticism about contestants’ weight, permitting skin-darkening makeup during photoshoots, and dismissing reports of inappropriate physical contact between models.
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