[Steeltrap]

From the Sacramento Bee. They have a big interest in Ms. Tyra.
A model life? It's not all that
By J. Freedom du Lac -- Bee Pop Culture Writer

Tyra Banks is among America's top models -- and a trailblazing one, at that.

The towering 5-foot-11 beauty who used to say she wanted to be "the black Cindy Crawford" realized her dream by rising to supermodel status in the 1990s, when she became the first African American woman to grace the cover of Sports Illustrated's annual swimsuit issue and the first African American to earn a contract with Victoria's Secret.
Banks has been in more magazines than she can count; endorsed plenty of products, from cosmetics to basketball shoes; and drawn five-figure paychecks just for walking up and down a runway for an hour or so.
At 29, though, she's starting to shift her focus.
She hasn't walked away entirely from the modeling world. She's still signed to Victoria's Secret, and she'll be featured in an upcoming issue of Elle.
But Banks is spending less time worrying about how she looks and more time thinking about how other people look, as creator and executive producer of the new reality-TV program "America's Next Top Model."
The series, premiering at 9 p.m. Tuesday on Channel 31, centers around 10 women who are competing for a big break -- not to mention a Revlon contract, a guaranteed appearance in Marie Claire magazine and a deal with Whilhemina, a top agency.
The wannabes will live together in a New York City penthouse and go through "supermodel boot camp" as they try to prove they're the next Tyra Banks -- with Banks and a panel of three other industry experts voting somebody off of the show every week.
Great work ... if you can win it.
Banks talked about the show, the industry and a certain superstar forward from the Sacramento Kings during a conference call with reporters.
She is, by the way, the only TV executive producer who has ever graced the cover of GQ in a bikini.

Q: You've done so much stuff in your career; what made you want to do this show?

A: I've always had an affinity for television. It has a lot of power and it reaches the masses. I wanted to get across this message about the modeling world and being a top model and what it takes -- trying to dispel myths about it.

Q: Everyone on the show is female. Did any males try out?

A: We were thinking about males, but we decided for this first season to have all females. I hate to say this, but the modeling world is one of the only occupations where women make a lot more than men.

Q: It's quite an eye-opener, the sequences in the first episode with the bikini waxes and all that screaming. Did you start the women off with waxes and photo shoots in the freezing cold to show that being a model isn't just fun?

A: It was important for me to put the girls through what real models go through. You see models shooting on the beach, and you just assume it's 90 degrees. But sometimes, it's 20 degrees. That is the difference between a model that's just kind of OK and a top model. A top model makes you think that they're having the best time in the world.

As far as the bikini waxes, I can say that I've never had one in my life -- and never will. But every other model has.

Q: Can we expect to see any cat-fighting?

A: There's 10 women and there's only two bathrooms, so there's definitely conflict. If I lived in there, I'd have some conflict, too.

Q: You've said you want to dispel myths about modeling. Are they myths about the job itself -- that modeling is not as glamorous as people think? Or is it the public's perception that models have low IQs?

A: All of that. One of the girls on the show is a med student. She's drop-dead gorgeous and she also wants to be a doctor. There's also a full-figured girl who's studying to get her master's degree right now. A lot of people think models are stupid. It's not that they're stupid. It's that (many are) uneducated -- similar to athletes. Models are pulled out of school early, because this industry and our society worship youth. It makes them uneducated -- but not ignorant.

Q: How do you think the parts of the show dealing with appearance will impact younger female viewers?

A: That's always been a thing I've had to balance when it comes to the show and when it comes to being a model, period. I used to get so many letters from girls talking about how insecure they were looking at me and my pictures. So I decided to start a camp called T-Zone. I take 60 girls up into the mountains (near Los Angeles) every year, and we talk about beauty and body image and sex, dating and relationships.

I dispel a lot of myths about my industry, and about how I look physically and all of my insecurities. That's what the show does, too. Yes, it's glamorous. But the modeling world is nothing but entertainment. I hope that girls understand that they should open up the magazine, enjoy it and then put it down -- just as a guy will watch a Lakers game, enjoy it and then turn the TV off.

You'll see how these models look when they wake up in the morning, and everybody ain't pretty. Hopefully, it will show girls that the modeling industry is about creation.

Q: When you first got into the industry, there were some top models -- and I'm thinking of one in particular (Naomi Campbell) -- who didn't want to see you succeed because she didn't want to be replaced. But here you've created a show that could help somebody take your own place. You must not be worried about finding work.

A: I've never been worried about that. I think my experiences with the person you're talking about helped me realize that there are so many spots, and everyone has their time to shine. By that person being so negative to me, it made me open up my arms even more.

When I was at fashion shows and I started getting more famous, if I saw a young girl sitting in the corner who was very nervous and insecure, I would go up to her and give her my phone number in Paris and say, 'Call me.' I tried to be as supportive as I can. I think this show is only an extension of that. My mom told me to always just compete with myself. I'm all about helping. I want to see somebody else be a star. I'm tired. (Laughs.)

Q: Finally, we haven't seen you at any Kings games lately. Are you and Chris Webber still "friends."

A: Uh, I'm not going to talk about that. But I love Sacramento. It's so beautiful. Yeah.



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