Thursday, March 28, 2024

Tyra Banks Admits ‘America’s Next Top Model’ Could Have Been More Inclusive [VIDEO]

*Tyra Banks admits “America’s Next Top Model” could have done a better job at being more inclusive and highlighting diversity. 

“We were still operating in a world—I was still a model at the time, not a retired model yet, and still operating in this world that had so many rules,” the former model said on the Tamron Hall Show on Wednesday. “It was this awful push and pull that we all had.”

Banks said there were “different categories of things we messed up” and that the series had “a whole bunch of things that we did mess up.” Banks sees the show’s missteps as her attempt to avoid hurting the contestants’ careers.

READ MORE: Tyra Banks Explains Why She Was an ‘Insensitive’ Hater in ANTM Clips After Backlash

TIME 100 Summit 2019
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – APRIL 23 Tyra Banks participates in a panel discussion during the TIME 100 Summit 2019 on April 23, 2019 in New York City. (Photo by Brian Ach/Getty Images for TIME)

“I was trying to push boundaries but was also torn to try to make sure that these girls could work, so it was a balance,” Banks said. “It was like, ‘Oh, break beauty barriers,’ but yeah, I can break them all I want on the show, but they’ll graduate from the show, and they won’t work.”

In May she addressed criticism over the disturbing ANTM clips that resurfaced, showing her rude, toxic and demeaning handling of several contestants.

In one clip, she criticized cycle six winner Danielle Evans’ choice not to close the gap in her front teeth. 

“Do you really think you can have a CoverGirl contract with a gap in your mouth?” Banks said after Evans decided against dental work. 

“I had model agents here saying, ‘These three girls could really, really work, but this must change,’ so there was a whole behind-the-scenes thing happening,” Banks told Hall. “Instead of me saying, ‘You must change this,’ on TV, I think what I should have said is, ‘You’re beautiful.’”

Banks went on to explain… “America’s Next Top Model was created—I created it—to introduce diversity and inclusion into a world that was pretty much not representing that or representing it in the most minute ways,” Banks said. “So that was the crux of why I created America’s Next Top Model. It’s why my partner Ken Mok and I, who’s Chinese American, got up every single day, and we made so many inroads.”

“Top Model” debuted in 2003 and was canceled in 2015. It was later rebooted on VH1.

Scroll up and watch Tyra’s interview with Tamron via the YouTube video above. 

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