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Would Tyra Banks Be Considered 'Too Heavy' to Be a Model Today?

SodaHead Living 2012/05/17 17:12:16
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Tyra Banks has transformed her modeling success into an impressive career spanning fashion and TV. But if she were getting her start today, looking like she did as a teenager, she says she'd be considered too fat to get hired. Find out what her mom had to say about it at 1:10 in the video below!



In an open letter congratulating Vogue for its recent decision to ban "too skinny" models, Tyra writes in The Daily Beast: "Many of you have graciously said that you want to have the same type of career that I’ve had....But the truth is that if I was just starting to model at age 17 in 2012, I could not have had the career that I did. I would’ve been considered too heavy. In my time, the average model’s size was a four or six. Today you are expected to be a size zero."

tyra banks

"In my early 20s I was a size four," she writes. "But then I started to get curvy. My agency gave my mom a list of designers that didn’t want to book me in their fashion shows anymore. In order to continue working, I would’ve had to fight Mother Nature and get used to depriving myself of nutrition.

"As my mom wiped the tears from my face, she said, 'Tyra, you know what we’re going to do about this? We’re going to go eat pizza.' We sat in a tiny pizzeria in Milan and strategized about how to turn my curves into a curveball. In a way, it was my decision not to starve myself that turned me into a supermodel, and later on, a businesswoman." Do you think young Tyra would be considered "too heavy" to be a model today?
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  • wpsegura 2012/05/18 16:48:46
    Yes
    wpsegura
    +2
    Unfortuonately, she would be considered a plus sized model now. That is so said, because she is far from a plus size.
  • AquariusNX01 2012/05/18 16:47:40
    No
    AquariusNX01
    It depends on whose standards you're asking about. The modeling industry would definitely consider her too heavy, but in terms of everyday life, no. She still looks better than most American women and is thin by comparison.
  • pamsingh 2012/05/18 16:40:29
  • Magicman 2012/05/18 16:30:43
    No
    Magicman
    +1
    She'd be considered "Normal" and wouldn't care what people think.
  • Lois Griffin 2012/05/18 16:19:47
    No
    Lois Griffin
    Tyra is fabo-lishus!
  • flyingseaturtle BN 2012/05/18 15:57:12
    No
    flyingseaturtle BN
    +1
    I think that when she was a model she was the right size. I don't want to look at people that are skin and bones ;-)
  • Alex, WolmanXX 2012/05/18 15:52:07 (edited)
    No
    Alex, WolmanXX
    If that's fat, the most beautiful women in the world are fat, so then wouldn't it be a great compliment to women then? \:'
  • Tasinahri 2012/05/18 15:51:49
    Yes
    Tasinahri
    And it's a damn shame. Cause she looks fine the way she is. Hell, she could gain another 10 pounds and she'd still look good.
  • MorganRae 2012/05/18 15:50:45
    No
    MorganRae
    No, i still think that she could be a fashion model today.
  • thanoss713 2012/05/18 15:34:36
    Yes
    thanoss713
    I think so.
  • Karin 2012/05/18 15:23:14
    No
    Karin
    modeling is not just about weight and shape
  • Wolverineland 2012/05/18 15:20:38
    No
    Wolverineland
    +2
    I like Tyra. tyra banks
  • Suzy Krcivoj 2012/05/18 15:17:53
    No
    Suzy Krcivoj
    She could still do it if she really wants to
  • daveygater 2012/05/18 15:17:31
    No
    daveygater
    a voluptuous lover is far and away the best !
  • ticlo7 2012/05/18 15:16:51
    Yes
    ticlo7
    In the eyes of fashion designers, yes. Apart from those few who are refusing to hire anorexic models, most are still perfectly fine with it. I think she's a beautiful young woman and unfortunately, she's right.
  • cass 2012/05/18 14:59:37
    No
    cass
    I love tyra just the way she is...
  • kthulhu 2012/05/18 14:59:07
    No
    kthulhu
    she's still small
  • Mungu 2012/05/18 14:53:04
    Yes
    Mungu
    +3
    She is too Phat to be a sickly drug addicted looking American model. But just right for me to hold real tight. She is out of sight.

    Lots of curves to make me feel just right. jjevans
  • Aquariu... Mungu 2012/05/18 16:48:58
    AquariusNX01
    Props for both the Ferengi and the Jimmie Walker.
  • Torchmanner ~PWCM~JLA 2012/05/18 14:46:07
    Yes
    Torchmanner ~PWCM~JLA
    If you eat healthy, you don't throw on the pounds. Eat the right foods in the right portions and you won't be overweight.
    There are those few people with medical issues though.
  • Jiorgia 2012/05/18 14:44:19
    Yes
    Jiorgia
    +1
    sadly yes.
  • JasmineR.Johnson 2012/05/18 14:37:33
    Yes
    JasmineR.Johnson
    +1
    She is but she should not be....
  • Jill 2012/05/18 14:35:29
    No
    Jill
    Nobody is too fat to model if there's a market for them!
  • NancyR1 2012/05/18 14:34:22
    No
    NancyR1
    +1
    ...beautiful women of all sizes should be able to model. It's the anorexic and bulemic ones that I truly worry about. Tyra is gorgeous and curvy, nothing wrong with that!
  • bettyboop 2012/05/18 14:26:07
    No
    bettyboop
    +2
    Most runway models meet the Body Mass Index physical criteria for Anorexia.
    50% of women wear a size 14 or larger, but most standard clothing outlets cater to sizes 14 or smaller............what's wrong with real size women???
    plus size models standard clothing outlets cater sizes 14 smaller wrong real women
  • daveygater bettyboop 2012/05/18 15:19:09
    daveygater
    +1
    HERE! HERE! .... wowwy wow wow!
  • ladyfyre 2012/05/18 14:23:05
    Yes
    ladyfyre
    +3
    Would she? Yes. Should she? NO. You have to remember the business as it is today was run in droves by men who like men. So, it would seem logical that the women they like would have very slim no-estrogen curves. but: runway models are literally just clothes hangers. They aren't your "supermodels" who are allowed to have some fake boobs to add the "girl" back in them. Being female, with curves is a GOOD and normal thing. Selling products to women using young girls who havent gone through puberty completely yet? WEIRD if you really think about it. :/
  • MorganRae ladyfyre 2012/05/18 15:42:21
    MorganRae
    VERY weird, I agree!
  • Wulfdane 2012/05/18 14:22:52
    Yes
    Wulfdane
    +1
    Sadly yes. Trya Banks is right, the modeling industry wants people who basically starve themselves. Who is to blame? The consumers, these modeling agencies are giving people what they want.
  • SODAHEADSHEAD 2012/05/18 14:19:46
    Yes
    SODAHEADSHEAD
    +1
    Uhh... For modeling yes for sweet love- never!
  • Laura Lovegood 2012/05/18 13:05:26
  • Miko 2012/05/18 13:04:35
    No
    Miko
    She is good and will do well today
  • FAM of the OMC 2012/05/18 12:57:07
    No
    FAM of the OMC
    What a completely jacked-up world the "fashion world" is.
  • HarleyCharley 2012/05/18 12:55:22
    No
    HarleyCharley
    +1
    I hope not she is gorgeous.....
  • No
    ϟ Emma ϟ_♥loves♥supernatural♥
    +1
    'too heavy" ???? someone is kidding right? i mean, look at her perfect body, with those great curves! she looks great!!
  • FELINE GESTURES IN THE DARK 2012/05/18 12:04:03
    No
    FELINE GESTURES IN THE DARK
    +1
    She is perfect .
  • jerry.alan.carroll 2012/05/18 12:02:20
    No
    jerry.alan.carroll
    +2
    size four too much?? hell no. this was a woman with true beauty and curves at the same time...not like those fat "full-figured" clowns that call themselves models.
  • jerry.a... jerry.a... 2012/05/18 13:05:05
    jerry.alan.carroll
    +2
    i notice the only folks that say something negative about skinny models are either fat or ugly.unless the models look like this, you cannot say "too skinny" notice folks negative skinny models fat models skinny

    but this is perfectly fine
    notice folks negative skinny models fat models skinny perfectly fine
  • HelmetGirl jerry.a... 2012/05/18 14:10:50
    HelmetGirl
    +1
    Not agreeing with the first part of your post (: )), but the "perfectly fine" model is fine. In my 20's I was quite thin and everyone told me I was too skinny and they would always point out that they could see my collarbone. I would shrug it off. A young woman I used to work with got the same thing. She was like the model above and everyone told her she needed to gain weight. I assured her she looked great which is what most of the other women DIDN'T like. And for all those who might want to say these "types" starve themselves? In the real world, they don't. They eat like horses (or two horses in my sister's case) and simply don't gain weight. Good genes and a great metabolism are the probable culprits. I'm not quite "perfectly fine" now, but not too shabby either. ; )
  • jerry.a... HelmetGirl 2012/05/19 04:53:11
    jerry.alan.carroll
    +1
    you are right about the starving part...most girls i know that look like that eat more than i do, a 235lb bodybuilder!

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2013/05/22 02:20:56

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