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Tyra Banks Launches Competition for Plus-Size Teen Models
Filed under: In The News
Tyra Banks addresses unflattering bathing suit photos that made waves a few years back on her talk show. Credit: Chris Polk, Warner Brothers / AP
Tyra Banks is looking for plus-sized teenage girls for her next modeling competition.
Banks announced the competition on her syndicated talk show Jan 25. The show's Web site says she wants "curvalicious" girls ages 13 to 19 -- and sizes 12 to 20 -- to enter. The girls also should be between 5-foot-9 and 6-foot-1, the supermodel tells US magazine.
"I've always felt it was my mission to expand the narrow perceptions of beauty," she tells the magazine. "Through 'America's Next Top Model,' 'True Beauty' and 'The Tyra Show,' I challenge industry and universal standards by featuring and celebrating nontraditional beauty and stressing that true beauty is both inside and out."
Banks is calling this latest competition the Fiercely Real Teen Model Search. Finalists will be announced on the March 2 episode of her show. The winner will be named the next day and receive a one-year modeling contract and a spread in a major fashion magazine.
Gigi Durham, a professor of journalism and mass communications at the University of Iowa, may not appreciate Banks' characterization of young girls as "curvalicious." Durham is the author of "The Lolita Effect," a book that argues that girls are too often and too soon turned into sexual objects.
"A lot of very sexual products are being marketed to very young kids," Durham says on her Web site. "I'm criticizing the unhealthy and damaging representations of girls' sexuality and how the media present girls' sexuality in a way that's tied to their profit motives."
Nonetheless, she would applaud Banks' attack on prevailing body images.
"The body ideals presented in the media are virtually impossible to attain, but girls don't always realize that, and they'll buy an awful lot of products to try to achieve those bodies," Durham adds. "There's endless consumerism built around that."
Changing body images is what this contest is all about, Banks tells US magazine.
"I want young girls to realize that what's considered plus-sized is the average American woman," Banks tells the magazine. "That woman is healthy, fit and beautiful. Adolescence is such an impressionable time in a young woman's life, and I hope this contest helps teen girls discover their own beauty from the inside out."
Related: Tyra Banks Announces End of Talk Show
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ReaderComments (Page 1 of 1)
1-31-2010 @ 8:33AM
dawn said...i think this is a wonderful idea beauty comes in different shapes an sizes kodos to trya
Reply
2-07-2010 @ 12:53PM
crystal lee said...dear tyra my name is crystal lee . i am 5`10 and weight 145 i have long brown hair and blue eyes . i have had a hard time in the past six years the system took me from my mom and i now live with an older couple who i call my parents and they have loved me like i was there own daughter . as a matter of fact she encouraged me to write you because she wants to feel as beautiful on the inside as she feels i am on the out side . tyra i am perfect this and would love the opportunity . you would change my life for ever . let me know if you would like me to send you a pic or a video . xoxo sincerly crystal lee
Reply
8-30-2010 @ 12:58AM
meagan_2011 said...Crystak not going to lie I have been in the system too and it isn't fun... I know life sucks and everything but I am 17 years old and I found my story in yours when I read it... I use to have to live with a random family and everything but it wasn;t because my family couldn't take care of me it was because of my actions that lead me to not living with them... but life always gets worse before it gets better i hope you do really well in the modeling thing i dont know if i am going to do it yet but i might... hope to hear from ya take care...
Meagan K. Logan
2-07-2010 @ 12:52PM
crystal lee said...Dearest Tyra,
Thank you so much for responding to Chrystal Lee's e-mail so quickly. Tyra, she so much fits the profile for your show concept. We are looking forward to hearing from you and having the opportunity to participate in Americas Next Plus -Size Teen
Model Competition. Crystal is beautiful inside and out and knows how to work it!!!!
Again, I thank You
Ilene
Reply
2-17-2010 @ 4:38PM
Layla abdullah said...Dear Tyra,
my name is layla i am 14 years old and ma height is 5"8 and weight about 190 pounds.i really want to be a model but for plus size teens it is very hard. i really want to be in the competition for teen plus size models.i love you so much i watch your show all the time.i think its really great your doing this competition. Please give me some feedback on how i go about looking for a modeling position that hires teen plus size model.
sincery Layla
luv you Trya
Reply
8-29-2010 @ 6:32AM
Meagan K. Logan said...Hey Tyra Banks,
so basically I havent dicided weather or not I am going to do the whole modeling thing but I think you are doing a great job at what you are doing! I think everyone and anyone should feel beautiful about themselves! I have to tell you I haven't really liked myself for a long time but what teenage girl or women in general really dose you know? I mean I have just kind of given up on myself since the years have gone by. I am 17 years old now and trying to love life as much as I can. The thing is Tyra is that most kids I know have been in Juvie, Rehab, been involved with the police or been taken to a placement for some help. I come from a really small town in Iowa! Yeah i hate it! lol! but the things you would think happen in a big city don't just happen there, it happens everywhere!!! I live in a town with 4'000 to 5'000 people. In a small town the bad stuff that is going on like selling drugs and fighting an stuff is just kept on the down low! See me and my family have been though this our whole lives. My dad is an alcoholic and he USE to beat my mom main word there USE TO! he doesn't anymore but he still drinks alot... My sister Casey started getting sent away when she was 15 for behavior problems and stuff like that. she was sent to detention centers and juvie homes all over the state of iowa. it wasnt fun driving all over to see her every weekend... but then there is me the other screw up child... I have been suicidal and been in and out of hospitals for the past year... but I went to Orchard Place it is resdential treatment center in Des Miones Iowa! I kept running away from there so I got kicked out since I was voluntery. I was home and i was drinking smoking pot, and huffing everyday my old ways hadn't changed at all I did all that stuff before I went away. i would find anyway to find pot or alcohol! i hated my life and i was home a week from orchard place and got sent to Jackson Adolescent Recovery Center in SiouxCity,Iowa. I was there 45 days and brigded from the program. I have been home about 4-5 weeks now and I drink once in a great while but I havent smokedpot or huffed since. I am 80 days clean and loving life! I still have really bad fights with my mom and we aren't the closest family in the world but we are trying to make it and I am also trying to love me. Ok, you are proably wondering why i am going on the long rampage about my life... I am not trying to get you to pick me or w.e. i am just saying every plus size or even every girl in general look at them and realize they have a story and they need to be heard and are wanting to be heard... I am not trying to put anymore pressure on you but I am just saying pls realize that don't just go by looks.... go by everything they are... thank you so much Tyra if you read this and I hope to hear from you....
With love
Your Girl
Meagan K. Logan
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