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00:12Over 20 years ago, I created a television show called America's Next Top Model.
00:18Tyra Banks at the Essence Awards made an appearance because she was getting awarded as a luminary.
00:23You guys have no idea how hard we fought to bring the diversity to that television show
00:31at a time when the world was like, what? You're casting that and what? And what is that?
00:36The mistakes were severe.
00:39I trusted you with my dreams. How dare you take my f***ing life away from me?
00:47Thousands of aspiring models stood in line for a chance to be America's Next Top Model.
00:52I'm from St. Louis, Missouri.
00:53Virginia.
00:54Salt Lake City, Utah.
00:55Just count one up.
00:56We're actually looking to give someone a dynamic career.
01:00Tyra really was the holy grail.
01:05Tyra Banks was the air that we breathed.
01:09Everyone wanted to be her.
01:12But truth of the matter, she was a hardcore b***h.
01:17Do you know what I think a fool means?
01:18Your pictures have been wah, wah, wah.
01:22Be quiet, everybody.
01:24Be quiet.
01:24That's what is wrong with you.
01:26Stop it.
01:27The crazier the models were, the better ratings they got on television.
01:32I don't understand why I don't have any friends.
01:34I break my daughter off.
01:36Okay, I'm already f***ing her.
01:45It was a TV show.
01:48Tyra was trying to create great television.
01:52In 2020, Top Model clips started showing up on social media.
01:57Yo, Tyra and her little crew, they were hella problematic.
02:00Gen Z, God bless them, were like, hey, this is bad.
02:04We are actually going to switch your ethnicity.
02:07This is racist.
02:08This is all people see.
02:09Easy reads beautiful color, girl.
02:11This is abusive.
02:12Destiny.
02:17Tyra declined many requests to give a public statement,
02:21which is why her essence moment was so significant.
02:23I refuse to have my legacy be about some stuff linked together on the internet.
02:34You're breaking the girls down for public consumption.
02:37I was rooting for you.
02:38We were all rooting for you.
02:40How dare you?
02:41I had never shaved my head like that before.
02:44And they throw you out in the world.
02:45And they're like, yeah, feed you to the f***ing walls.
02:46They're not looking for the next model.
02:48They could care less.
02:51All Tyra is doing is counting her money.
02:53It wasn't a modeling competition.
02:54It was psychological warfare.
02:56Learn something from this.
03:14I was born in Harbor City, California.
03:20But it's all LA.
03:22All of it is LA.
03:24We are super close to where we filmed near Skid Row.
03:28I was like, Mom, I'm going on America's Next Top Model.
03:30I get to go to New York.
03:32And then I was like, surprise.
03:34You're going to be down the street from Skid Row.
03:39Boy, that was sketchy times.
03:41I guess it was, maybe it was cheaper.
03:45Maybe it was cheaper.
03:52Tyra Banks was not just a model.
03:56She was a superstar.
04:01Top Model was a pop culture sensation.
04:05Tyra considers herself an ugly duckling.
04:08There's this one image that she uses consistently.
04:11Anytime she talks about body images, she always starts with that photo.
04:14It wasn't just that gawky, cute, skinny.
04:16Oh, she's so gawky and young.
04:17It was, I looked ill.
04:18People thought I was sick.
04:19People used to stare at me.
04:20She was discovered around 17, and then she made her way to Paris.
04:27And then took over the runways from there.
04:32Tyra was a Victoria's Secret angel.
04:35She was on the cover of the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue.
04:40But by the mid-2000s, Tyra was no longer a 17-year-old skinny little model.
04:46And so for Tyra's career to continue, she had to grow outside of just the modeling world.
04:54The early 2000s was like the wild, wild west, not just for the internet and social media at its infancy,
05:03but also shows like the real world survivor, American Idol, were exploding in popularity.
05:12And Tyra Banks wanted to be a part of it.
05:16She had gone on to do some acting, some bit parts, but she never really made it big.
05:21The last time Tyra was in my memory, as part of like popular culture, was when she was dating Chris
05:29Webber.
05:30And I can't imagine that the Tyra Banks would like to go out on being just Chris Webber's girlfriend.
05:38Ex-girlfriend.
05:38Ex-girlfriend.
05:41Tyra wanted to extend her career and extend her visibility.
05:45The entertainment industry has always been very skeptical of models and whether or not they can act.
05:51And so it was really smart for Tyra to say, the best role for me to play is me.
05:58Everybody out here wants to be America's next top model.
06:02Play it to the camera.
06:06Because I'm involved in being part of the fashion industry for so long, it's quality control.
06:11It's not going to be like a joke.
06:12The person that wins is going to go from being nobody to being the star in eight weeks.
06:17Everyone wanted to be the next Tyra Banks.
06:20But the show was not only about trying to be a model.
06:24It was what happens when you take a dozen strangers and make them live together kind of show.
06:30I went in there so innocent.
06:32I thought I've never been a model before.
06:34I'm just learning.
06:35Who are these fabulous girls in this world that I want to be a part of?
06:38A lot of them were just out of high school.
06:41They thought that they would have the chance to have mentorship under Tyra
06:45and actually move towards a successful modeling career.
06:49It happened really, really fast.
06:51Here I am in the house.
06:52I live with the girls 24-7.
06:56Every day really started off with Tyra showing up when it was time to do the competition.
07:00And that's when we had an idea of what the day was going to be like.
07:05Okay, so today you guys are shooting a commercial.
07:07So this is where your stardom is solidified.
07:11What's lovely, it's formulaic and we love a formula.
07:14First, there's always like a mini challenge or some sort of weird test.
07:18You'll be stepping on and off a moving carousel.
07:25Usually something that is loosely applied to the world of modeling.
07:30You're going to have to balance these items on top of your head.
07:36And then one of the most defining things about Top Model is the makeover episode.
07:44It usually comes around as a third to fourth episode, depending.
07:48Tyra comes in and is like, all right, basically you guys all look bad.
07:53I know how to make you look good.
07:57And it did seem like the makeovers were engineered to make at least three people cry.
08:01I'm like a boy.
08:03Right now, yeah, it's a little Oliver twist.
08:05But when they style it and it's your makeup done, it's going to be so pretty.
08:08You got to trust me, okay?
08:10The makeup episodes every season were appointment television.
08:14And not because they were good.
08:17They want to see if you react excessively to stress to make a good show.
08:22And so in the fasting process, they asked personality questions to see whether or not you are a volatile person.
08:29We have a psychologist who comes and evaluates them even before they're chosen.
08:34The psych evaluations were no joke.
08:37I was in a room for two to four hours.
08:40They would ask, have you ever thought I wanted to commit suicide or hurt somebody?
08:44You hurt yourself.
08:45Are you depressed?
08:46It also shows Tyra, do we think they can handle the pressure?
08:51I don't like to cast for conflict.
08:54We just cast strong personalities.
08:58On my psychological evaluations, one of the questions that they asked was about my childhood.
09:04It did make me feel uncomfortable.
09:06But then I was like, well, this is reality TV, so I shrugged it off as nothing.
09:11The show is pretty transparent about how it wants to mine the backstories of its contestants.
09:20Tyra is trying to make a show that's entertaining, even if it is a little exploitative.
09:24So what's this about your relationship with your mom?
09:27They kept trying to pick and get more information about my mom.
09:32My mom was my abuser.
09:35My mom is the one that tortured me my whole life.
09:40They ask, what kind of abuse?
09:44How do you think your mom would feel right now?
09:49The show is shocking audiences by putting not just explosive confrontations on screen.
09:56You're basically presenting yourself like a moron, okay?
10:00And what are you doing, alcoholic bitch?
10:02But also asking a lot of its contestants to perform their kind of trauma on screen.
10:16I wasn't eating correctly, I wasn't sleeping.
10:22And I probably had a couple too many glasses of wine.
10:29I was just like always one moment away from like fully almost like losing it.
10:37Because they were weaponizing my childhood trauma, they just with me emotionally.
10:45They were sleeping outside on the porch.
10:48Well, that's because she's drunk.
10:50That girl had a lot of issues.
10:52Well, she doesn't cry, girl, bitch.
10:56Tyra made me look absolutely crazy.
10:59I felt like she decided we're going to make a mockery of you.
11:02And then the whole world on top of that is going to call you crazy and make fun of you.
11:08Corinne calls me an alcoholic bitch.
11:11That set the tone of what I've been called around the globe for over 15 years.
11:18I was set up to be publicly humiliated on repeat forever.
11:27I got into the editing bay and I was like, I love this.
11:32Fun putting it together, editing it.
11:36Not only is Tyra on set, but Tyra goes to every single editing session.
11:45She really sits there and knows exactly what she wants to see fold out on tape.
11:50So do you care to comment on Ken Mock, calling Tyra a control freak?
11:56I managed to dodge that question really well, didn't I?
12:00No, absolutely not.
12:02Tyra a control freak?
12:03I don't know what you're talking about.
12:07Anyone who likes to think that Tyra is just the face of the show,
12:11I'm here to tell you that that is a complete lie.
12:15Tyra is the puppeteer that was being psychologically tortured for the entertainment of the world
12:26and for Tyra Banks and the network's profit.
12:30And she did the same thing to all the other girls.
12:40So are you going to come back next season?
12:42To America's Top Model?
12:43Phew!
12:44Of course!
12:45Until they get sick of me or I say something wrong and they fire me.
12:50Tyra chose judges, they were always over the hill supermodels.
12:57It was Paulina Poroskova, it was like Twiggy, it was Janice Dickinson, so Tyra had the ability to say,
13:06these are my peers, but she still got to be younger and beautiful and inflate her presence.
13:13It was her show.
13:15The most important judge is Tyra, but we really wanted somebody that was going to come in that
13:20was going to kind of be a lightning rod.
13:22Someone who is not going to censor herself.
13:25I'm Janice Dickinson. I am the world's first supermodel.
13:30I coined the term. Ask anybody, it was me. Ha ha.
13:36I cast Janice. She was 100% my idea. I definitely wanted her because I was like,
13:42you know what? She seems like she's going to be really honest and really tell it like it is.
13:46I had no idea she was going to be as honest and tell it like it is as she is.
13:50Looks like you landed from another planet because you have so much teeth.
13:54You're deranged.
13:55This photograph looks like the batteries died in her vibrator.
14:00The producers on America's Next Top Model, especially Tyra, were begging me to be harsher
14:06and cruel like Simon Cowell was on American Idol.
14:11Tyra was able to allow Janice to be the bully in a way that gave Tyra plausible deniability.
14:17It's like a Hitchcock film. Go back and forth, back and forth really fast to see what I mean.
14:26If she doesn't want to be the one to say you look fat and disgusting and your thighs are jiggling,
14:30she doesn't have to say it. Because Janice is going to be willing to take the lump on that.
14:35You got to work on the thighs. That's the booty thing. You got to kind of really watch the diet
14:39next to us.
14:42I was taken back by the judges in their comments. One minute they're saying,
14:46oh, you're just so beautiful. The next minute, oh, your body. Look at this. You have all these issues.
14:52Ioana has a lovely face. I think she needs to definitely work on her body. I think,
14:56you know, I wouldn't want to see her in a swimsuit.
14:58It almost felt like you're in this vortex of a narcissistic relationship. Going from the love
15:04bombing back to getting devalued at the drop of a hat. See her back. Ioana has one problem,
15:12and it's the midriff.
15:16I didn't know what my backside really looked like. And to have cameras really zoning in on that,
15:22and to be so young, and to have, you know, other people commenting. There was this level of,
15:28I want to say, cruelness at that time that you wouldn't be able to get away with saying in this
15:33moment. Why don't we go around the room and talk about imperfections? What do you think yours is?
15:39It really kind of messed with my self-esteem.
15:45If you're sporting a gut, then you turn to the side and disguise it.
15:50Really, honestly, putting that on TV was really dangerous because I was so, so thin. I've had so
15:59many people message me and say that they developed eating disorders after watching. And, um,
16:06it sucks. I'm really very interesting in the early aughts. The biggest thing that I remember about
16:14Tyra was that people kept talking about how curvy she was. I represent the modeling world as a body
16:20that's fuller, it's thicker, it's got a booty. In this industry, yeah. I'm like 20 pounds heavier than
16:27these girls, girl. Her body type is not that of like a 2000s era model. Like a Kate Moss,
16:34skinny, heroin chic. Tyra was not that. This is the era where the idea was the double zero. Can
16:42you be able to wear low rise pants and, you know, not have love handles?
16:46When Tyra would say stuff to people about their bodies, it felt like it was coming from like a
16:52place like deep in there where she was like, I haven't dealt with this yet. So let me just put
16:57it on you instead.
16:58I got the same stomach, girl, but I know how to hold it in. You got to work with what
17:02you got.
17:02It seems like Tyra is sort of working her out on other people.
17:07She's been explicit that she was viewed as too big for the runway. And Tyra really projected a lot
17:13of her traumas onto women who weren't necessarily ready to receive it.
17:19Immediately, I was like, they're going to talk about my weight. That's going to be the thing.
17:22You are a little perhaps nervous about your body. Every question, everything we did got tied back
17:30to my weight. When I got the makeover, I looked great. It has since become the Karen haircut. It
17:36was like that short blonde with the... At the time it was cool, but they were like, are you worried
17:42that the short hair is going to make you look fatter? What is it like being the biggest girl?
17:49I realized that I had been brought to this show to be other. Like they were all the ideal. They
17:57were
17:57all what everyone in America, every woman should aspire to look like. And I was something else.
18:05It just confirmed every bad thought that an eating disorder had already planted in my head.
18:12There would always be a plus size model or two, and they were kind of cannon fodder. It was
18:19on one hand saying, we want women of all sizes. But then when there were women of all sizes,
18:24treating the women of different sizes like . You know your plus size. Suck a gut, baby.
18:29Anything hanging out? It looks nasty. They were just recruiting these women who weren't
18:35traditional model size and then throwing them to the wolves. Do you think that I'm going to be able
18:39to get a rack like this loaded with clothes in your size? I don't think that you realize how this
18:45whole
18:45modeling thing works. When she came in, Sarah was openly a plus size model. But then over the course
18:53of filming, Sarah lost weight. And that became a problem. Lost quite a bit of weight. People have
18:58said that. And I haven't been trying to, but people keep mentioning it. Sarah was told that you're pretty
19:05despite this thing. And by virtue of what production has you doing, you lose weight. And they hold that
19:13against you. The judges feel like you, Sarah. Your place in the industry is kind of confusing right now,
19:19because models are so, so, so skinny for their plus size. I was told I was too thin for a
19:27plus size model,
19:27but too fat to be an America's next top model. Tyra Banks can't shake up standards of beauty
19:35while ultimately crowning the person who suits the standard of beauty. Here she is reinforcing the
19:42status quo when she promised us the opposite. So when you create an environment that you told me was going
19:49to be better than this, and then you make it worse, that's up.
20:04One of the things the viewers never really realized we were going through is the amount of
20:10deliberation and the feedback from the judges. We might see a clip of one comment. I think it's the
20:16worst picture I've ever seen in my life. Your hair looks like a cockatoo there and here.
20:23But we would be in front of the judges for hours. The elimination days were usually
20:29minimum 12 hours, sometimes 18, until 2, 3, 4 in the morning. On the first day, one of the crew
20:37members warned us. They were like, look, a girl faints every week.
20:45So if you feel like you're feeling faint, don't be a hero. Raise your hand and someone will come help
20:50you. And I remember I thought like, oh my god, these skinny bitches can't even stand for a while,
20:56like, and they're fainting. First day, it was me. I had to raise my hand and I almost went down.
21:03All of us were sleep deprived. All of us weren't able to eat enough food. They know what they're
21:08doing. It's all intentional.
21:13If you can get through the pressure and look like a model.
21:17And get through judging and get through us being evil. Just knock you down and build you back up.
21:24Then you have what it takes to become America's next top model.
21:28The rules in the house were challenging. Lights were always on, even when you were ready to go to bed.
21:34There was no cell phone usage. You were not allowed to leave the house. No windows were allowed to be
21:39opened. If we didn't follow the rules, we would be punished. They could take away our books, take away
21:46our iPods. So we would have to sit in silence for hours. You're squeezing into an apartment with so
21:54many girls and only one bathroom's working. And the rules are, we will not film you in the shower
21:59or in the toilet stalls. If there's only one of you, but the second there's two of you, we can
22:05film you.
22:06And also, you guys should shower together for the environment.
22:12You're almost an animal for spectator sport versus a human being. It felt like it was an experiment
22:20to see how easy we could crack and break.
22:25For the most part on my season, the producers just wanted to instigate conflict. But the photo shoot in
22:32Africa was something else. You're going to be dancing with three hot guys. What a lot of people
22:41didn't see was that like behind the scenes, the male model Bertini was actually hardcore flirting with me,
22:50telling me that he was going to come to the States and find me. And he wanted to be with
22:55me. And it was,
22:56it was just, it was just a lot. Give me that side. Sorry, I gotta go right in the wardrobe
23:00after this.
23:01This is so cringe to watch. Gotta break this out.
23:07He was like grunting as he was dancing with me. And he stood a lot closer to me than the
23:11other models.
23:12He had on this tiny little loincloth, uh, fabric. And then it just got to the point where I realized
23:18that he actually had an erection. What's the issue? I know it's not about feeling comfortable, but
23:25here I'm moaning and it just threw me off. Moaning where? Like on me, like, I'm sorry. I just didn't
23:31feel comfortable. It was flipped into me being a bit of a diva. We're here in a professional
23:38situation. There are like 50 of us sitting here on set. Right, right. We, we're going with the flow.
23:44When your space is invaded and you're put in a tough situation,
23:51it almost feels even more sinister to be in front of everyone. I really thought that
24:01I would be applauded for speaking up for myself.
24:06What's even crazier to me about that scenario is that it's not a real job. Kenya wasn't a girl who
24:13had
24:14to get the job done so that she can pay her bills next week. This was a fake shoot on
24:20a fake show.
24:23And there are people in charge who can do something about it.
24:26There has to be a way that you can handle it. You know, you have to be able to be
24:29in control.
24:31Like with your feminine wiles, like, boy, you best to back up throughout and knock you outside the head.
24:35But you do it in a fun way where he knows to back the heck up, but it doesn't really
24:40put static in the air,
24:40because then it makes you uncomfortable. Tyra Banks reprimanded you for not handling real sexual
24:47harassment on a fake shoot. You have to wonder what Tyra went through to think that that's the way you
24:53handle a situation like that. But then my empathy has to go out the window because you visited upon
24:59that girl something that was probably traumatic to you.
25:05It's just so interesting like watching it back to little Kenya because Tyra's a grown woman at this
25:11time. I was 19 years old and it should have never unfolded that way.
25:22Moments like what Jada endured are particularly frustrating because ultimately what you're doing is
25:29a little bit of a humiliation ritual.
25:34Jada's partner Nacho tells Jada that he's even like black girls.
25:38That man just was like, I don't want to kiss her. I don't really like black girls.
25:42Again, a fake shoot with a real racist in a fake scenario that you all created.
25:52Oh, you're going to have to give him a kiss to make him love some black girls because
25:55what do they say? Once they go black, they don't go back.
25:59There you go.
26:01Jada, you can't cry because we don't have time to fix your makeup.
26:04I can't do this. She expressed her discomfort over and over and over again.
26:13And they made her do this fake commercial with a real racist.
26:18You told me that this is the guy that said that he didn't want to kiss a black girl.
26:21He doesn't like black girls.
26:23Oh, he's just an extra.
26:25That should not have stopped her from doing the job that she was sent there to do.
26:29At what point do you get to put your hands up and say enough is enough?
26:42I can actually believe that Tyra thinks that representation feels important.
26:47I want to be out like I'm gay and I'm really proud of it.
26:52But in the wrong hands, is representation enough? It absolutely is not.
26:57I think there's a certain thing of being proud. Like, I'm black and proud. You know what I mean?
27:00But I'm not like walking on the red carpet. I'm black.
27:02Yeah. I'm proud.
27:04One of the things that queer phobia kind of generates is this idea of a looming predator.
27:09I can't be safe around you because you are attracted to my gender. Therefore,
27:12anything you do is automatically sexual.
27:15Can you think I'm beautiful?
27:17Yeah.
27:20It becomes, again, this contradictory message in which it's we want to support queer inclusivity,
27:25but we also need to somehow make a spectacle of it at the same time.
27:31In those early days, you couldn't find lesbians anywhere on television outside of Ellen,
27:36and you certainly couldn't find a black lesbian.
27:38We know you're a lesbian. How do you feel about expressing that on national television?
27:43People never assume I'm gay. I felt my sexuality. It was something between me and everybody that was
27:49producing the project. But Tyra Banks choosing to say that I was gay and putting that out there
27:53without talking to me first, I was floored. We're talking the 90s, 2000s. What do you think
27:59about that time? Being openly homosexual was actively exposing yourself to danger.
28:06I just wondered, what did she think was going to happen to me afterwards?
28:10I would get random calls from churches telling me to come back to the Lord.
28:16I didn't understand how churches got my number.
28:19If you were to ask Tyra, I'm sure she would say, well, I gave you a platform. But
28:24a platform, it's not safety. It's scrutiny. It's surveillance. It's inviting millions of people
28:30to have judgments on how you live your life.
28:33One of the first representations of a trans woman on television was on top model.
28:41But the other girls weren't very nice to Isis.
28:44Growing up in the South, you don't exactly run into a heishi every day. You walk around like that in
28:49a
28:49small town, you were shot. The transphobia is harder to swallow than some of the other stuff
28:56because there wasn't really any other trans representation on the show. And so it really
29:00does feel like Isis is being picked on. Sam Isis, you need to shame, y'all.
29:05I think Tyra's belief is I should get a pat on the back simply for the idea of acknowledging that
29:10a
29:10trans person exists and is worth talking to. But if you are someone with visible, marginal identities,
29:17there's little reward in being the primary person to break a boundary. You're the person who gets
29:23all the backlash.
29:25The she actually used to be he and I think still is.
29:30Tyra wasn't trying to help these girls.
29:33Tyra was trying to create a great TV show.
29:38I think in the first couple of seasons, it tried to take itself a little bit seriously,
29:42and then it just got like wacky. These are giant Madagascar hissing cockroaches.
29:48Oh, he's going crazy. We were put through things that would never happen in real life.
29:52Some girls are going to be shooting with a bull.
29:56Oh, my God.
30:00Listen, I think there is some thrill in watching pretty people be tortured.
30:05These girls have to be prepared to do almost anything to sell a garment.
30:10I'm freaking bleeding.
30:14America's Next Top Model is also a social experiment. What people are willing to do for fame,
30:20what they're willing to endure to get it.
30:22You find out what someone's fear is, and then you find a way to exploit it on television.
30:27If you find out the girl is afraid of spiders, guess what she's going to be doing?
30:32I'm definitely afraid.
30:34A photo shoot with spiders.
30:36She's cold.
30:37Really?
30:38Can I get a tissue for her, please?
30:40They made these models work with snakes.
30:44Take your breath. Take your breath.
30:47Heights.
30:48Do you want to come up, Katie?
30:50Give me a second.
30:51Okay.
30:52Dangling over a pit probably was more of a liability than an actual shot for a magazine.
31:00But I thought, there's a modeling contract eventually that you're going to be able to have.
31:04Just go for it.
31:07There were a lot of things done in Top Model that they got wrong.
31:16And one challenge got it very wrong.
31:19I think Hulu banned this one now.
31:22Someone should have refused to do that, and yet no one did.
31:33The Got Milk Challenge photo shoot was...
31:38Shocking.
31:39Degrading.
31:40It was just stupid.
31:44That episode, there are literally people in blackface on TV in the 2000s.
31:50The challenge here really is taking on the persona of that other ethnicity.
31:57Everyone seems kind of like, okay, girl, I guess I'll do this because I'd like to win the show.
32:03But I remember watching that as it was airing and being like, I don't know, man, this doesn't
32:08seem, I don't think we should be doing this.
32:11Michelle, an Eskimo.
32:14Kenya, Korean.
32:16Brittany, an African-American woman.
32:19I think Tyra thinks that she's introduced a conversation about us all being one and
32:23what are the things that bring us together versus bring us apart.
32:25But instead, it's like a caricature of existing racist tropes.
32:30It should be noted that so many of the creatives working on Top Model were people of color.
32:38Tyra, a black woman.
32:40Ken Mock, an Asian man.
32:43They knew what they were doing was edgy, but they viewed it as edgy and not wrong.
32:53At the time, because Tyra Banks is an African-American woman and she's wanting me to
32:58become, to transport me into an African-American woman, I truly didn't see anything of it.
33:04None of us did.
33:05And whatever Tyra says us to do, we do.
33:07No one wants to go home.
33:09As a 19-year-old, you don't really have the courage at that time to say, hey,
33:15this is, you know, isn't politically correct or, you know, whatever you may feel.
33:20Because there was a potential for you to go home and for this whole dream
33:23and opportunity to just be over.
33:26Tyra had the ability to make or break you.
33:29We're all scared of Tyra.
33:32I think that the race swap challenges that the show did a couple of times in some ways have
33:38become a little bit of a scapegoat so that contemporary reality television doesn't have
33:42to grapple with its own issues of racism.
33:45It's not so much that the race swap itself as a challenge was inherently offensive, although
33:50it, like, it's offensive. The worst thing about that challenge was the judging panel
33:55and the ways that they seem to understand racial identity, such that it's a thing that can be
34:01really authentically performed.
34:03Britney.
34:05Sister.
34:06You look like a Black girl, girl.
34:08I wasn't feeling it.
34:10Oh, I loved it.
34:12It's one thing if you take a young white woman and put some dark makeup on her in an Afro
34:17wig.
34:18It's another thing to say you need to embody Blackness and celebrate her for, you know,
34:23I don't know, just sort of acting like she has an attitude. You realize the show wants to celebrate
34:30Blackness, but only a very limited idea of what Blackness can be.
34:34That's the ghetto walk. If she took a little bit of hoochie out of that ghetto walk,
34:38that would have been Naomi.
34:39Tyra seemed weirdly obsessed with and repulsed by all things ghetto, like obvious markers of,
34:48like, lower middle class, lower class Black people.
34:51But then, Tyra always went off her way to cast women who were coded in that way.
34:59Do you really think you can have a cover girl contract with the gap in your mouth?
35:02Yeah, why not?
35:03This is all people see. Easy Reads Beautiful Cover Girl. It's not marketable.
35:07I remember feeling really uncomfortable by this idea that Dani's gap needed to be fixed.
35:13The show seemed to be equating her gap with a particular type of Blackness that was
35:19undesirable within that industry. Being unapologetically working class and Black at the
35:25same time, it prohibits you from being able to be viewed as relatable. So, as a result,
35:31you're going to be consistently punished for being a product of your own circumstances.
35:35Chelsea, we love your teeth. We'd love to exaggerate that and take you a little bit more to Lauren.
35:42And then to try to expand this white girl's teeth on camera is not a contradiction that feels out of
35:51place at all with Tyra.
35:57Tyra Banks, as a Black woman, there are many things that she did that she knew better.
36:03With your skin texture, being an African-American woman, it should be like butter. At the retouching
36:08session, your photo was the hardest that we had to do. There's no way that I believe that it's
36:14lost on Tyra how offensive and hurtful it is to call a Black woman, especially a dark-skinned one,
36:19ashy. When she said my skin texture was too rough, she knew my skin texture wasn't too rough.
36:23She knew what she was doing.
36:27As a Black woman in high fashion, I'm sure, Tyra was made to feel ghetto, lower class, inferior.
36:36And so I can imagine that has a lot to do with her obsession with Black presentation in different
36:43spaces. But the thing is, your job is to get therapy, not 20 years of abusive television.
36:52Those girls didn't deserve that.
37:03The media really had a field day with this idea of Tyra Banks and Naomi Campbell beefing behind
37:09the scenes. For years, supermodel Tyra Banks was in the middle of a bitter feud with another top
37:15model, Naomi Campbell. Tyra felt like she was bullied by Naomi Campbell, that there wasn't
37:21room for two Black girls in the industry.
37:24I think I've been a serious victim of pitting one Black model against another.
37:29My mom would look at fashion magazines. It was just Iman. That's all you saw. And then it was just
37:34Beverly Johnson. And then it was just Naomi Campbell.
37:37Do you remember that Times article? Beyoncé's first solo effort is good, but she's no Ashanti.
37:45That's what this is. It's not just Tyra who makes a marginalized community feel like there can only
37:52be one. It really made me angry. As I'm saying, in order for me to be successful, I have to
37:58knock
37:58someone out. So that means when I get really up there that somebody's going to come and knock me out.
38:02I think she really did feel like she was sort of competing with Naomi.
38:06When you're presented as the other person's replacement, maybe you do get mean and maybe
38:12you do get jealous and maybe you do get catty. But I think Tyra's been working out her Naomi rivalry
38:18with every Black woman she's come across in the 30 years since.
38:23I don't even think Tyra really wants any of us to become stars. Tyra didn't want any competition.
38:30Tyra was breaking the girls down so she could feel better about herself. She went off on one girl
38:36that was so frightening. I thought I was going to get up and like hold her down.
38:42Be quiet, Tiffany. Be quiet. That's what is wrong with you. Stop it! I have never in my life
38:49yelled at a girl like this. When my mother yells at this, it's because she loves me. I was rooting
38:54for
38:54you. We were all rooting for you. All of us were standing there like
38:59it did not feel like a mother yelling at her daughter. It just felt like someone just yelling
39:04at someone kicking a dog when they're down. She would go harder on the black girls on the show
39:10because it's about competitiveness and jealousy and she being older than these young models.
39:23You take responsibility for yourself because nobody's going to take responsibility for you.
39:29If that's mama Tyra, then they need to come take me away. Child services needs to take us.
39:35You roll in your eyes and you act like this because you've heard it all before. You've heard it all
39:39before.
39:39You don't know where the hell I come from. You have no idea what I've been through. But I'm not
39:43a victim.
39:44I grow from it and I learn. She was always trying to be this tough teen mom to the girls.
39:50But she just did
39:51not build up enough confidence in the girls. They left the show completely depressed and depleted while
39:57she got so effing rich. Is Tyra a narcissist? I ain't a doctor, but yes.
40:11Narcissists are high ego, low self-esteem. Low self-esteem just oozes out of her.
40:17Paulina Portokova says that you lack respect for the co-judges. Janice Dickinson said that you were
40:24righteous. I mean, why do you think both of them had such negative things to say about
40:27their experience? Why do you think?
40:30It wasn't there. She doesn't want to go back. Why do you think? I don't know.
40:37Jealous? Is that what you're saying? I'm asking you. You said it. I didn't say that word. You said it.
40:44America's Next Top Model really tortured these girls for Tyra Banks' ego. She put the girls down for
40:52everything. The hairstyles, the way they walk, the way they hold their face. It really tore their ego
40:59and identity. I was there and I saw it for four seasons. She was a hardcore bitch.
41:1245 different countries worldwide had their own version of Top Model. Tyra Banks became a mogul.
41:20A lot of people might have assumed that we were paid to be on that show. We were given 37
41:24dollars
41:24a day to buy our food. I left the show broker than I'd ever been in my life. Tyra doesn't
41:29have that
41:30empathy. She has blind ambition. In the all-star cycle, they brought back all of these returning
41:35contestants. I went back for revenge. I went back for redemption. But they kept us in the vans with paper
41:42bags over our heads. I won this show and they were like, we can't air you as the winner because
41:47you were
41:48engaging in sex work. She was set up from the very beginning to be the one that's disqualified at the
41:54end. They were really good at casting someone who was struggling with something. Alway accused of
42:00breaking into people's homes and cars. I had never shaved my head like that before. I felt so small.
42:06And my dream was right there. It was like almost, almost, almost. And then you just take my away from
42:12me.
42:12How are you any different from a pimp selling dreams?
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