14 DAY TRIAL // Tyra Banks is really determined to change the world one step at a time. After her many, empowering moves she made on her show, Tyra is now putting her money where her mouth is with a foundation targeting young women and impressionable girls.
At the same time, she’s speaking out on the issues she too had to deal with while growing up.
Before the glamour of being a supermodel, Tyra too had serious issues with body image and extremely low self-esteem, deriving from her being too skinny and too tall, she says in a new interview with The Huffington Post Live, as the video below will confirm.
“When I was 11 years old, I grew three inches and lost 30 pounds [13.6 kg] in three months. So I went from being a mean bully, cute little chubby little girl to shooting up, [weighing] 98 pounds [44.4 kg] and just looking sick and frail,” Tyra says.
“I wasn't sick, but people thought there was something wrong with me. I was the brunt of every joke, every bad thing. I hated my reflection in the mirror. I would try to stuff food down my throat to gain weight. Nothing would work,” she recalls.
She even spent weeks in a hospital on drips and injections, as doctors were trying to find out whether her issue was a medical one or not.
Eventually, Tyra gained weight and went on to become one of the most successful supermodels of all times.
She’s yet to forget that 11-year-old girl and how she felt, which is why she started the TZONE foundation at the Lower Eastside Girls Club to help others who might be in the same situation she once was.
“Even though I later gained weight and became a supermodel, that girl always lived inside of me and I know what that felt like. Then to become a supermodel with all of this hair and makeup and glamour...” Tyra explains.
“Then I start projecting images that I know make my 11-year-old self insecure, I felt like I had and still have a responsibility to tell the truth and to talk about my pains, my issues. So my passion is girls and self-esteem,” she adds.