Tyra was born April 12, 1973, in Los Angeles, California. Tyra is an
award winning model, accomplished actress and TV celebrity. Growing up
in Los Angeles, Tyra was able to take full advantage of the Southern
California lifestyle. Despite the fact that her parents divorced when
she was very young, her mother and various family members instilled a
high degree of family values and expectations. Her mother would read
to her all the time, and Tyra loved to read more than anything else.
When she was a young girl, it was almost like an addiction for her.
She could spend hours inside bookstores.
During her young teenage years, Tyra was tall and bean-pole skinny,
and constantly teased by her brother and her classmates because of her
awkward appearance. During one three month period, she lost nearly 20
pounds and grew 2 inches. She was very tall for her age and her mother
took her to the best doctors to try to find out what was wrong with
her. The doctors said that she was perfectly healthy, and she became a
"boring bookworm". She really didn't feel comfortable in her skinny
body, so she ate a lot of fattening foods.
Tyra worried constantly, when all the popular girls at her school had
started to develop breasts and heaps, her body just stayed the same,
straight and narrow! When Tyra turned 17 years old, she started to
gain weight and developed some curves. That is when Tyra's self-esteem
improved and her modeling career began to take shape. Tyra has the
biggest boobs on the catwalk and they are real, she says. "I was a 34C
when I was 17".
Her mother raised her to be mentally strong, and that's probably why
she can stand the stress of the modeling industry. "I've been lucky
enough to come from a really strong family, where I was taught only to
compete with myself. My mom always told me, 'Don't ever let anyone
tell you you can't do something'." Tyra was used to getting into
trouble in school. She would challenge her teachers because she
thought that she was smarter than all of them. Her mother was
constantly called to the principal's office. But, even though she was
very mischievous, she always managed to get really good grades.
Tyra moved to Paris for a year and modeled for many of the big names
in fashion, including Ralph Lauren and Chanel. She returned to the
States and continued modeling, working her way up through the ranks
and diversify her activities. Tyra ambitiously took a small part in
the British television movie "Inferno", as a supermodel, and then
appearing on Will Smith's Fresh Prince of Bel-Air in a recurring
supporting role. Her first real movie role came in John Singleton's
"Higher Learning", where she played Omar Epps' track running
girlfriend. Tyra is definitely not just another supermodel playing at
being an actress, she is the real thing. She even did some distance
running training, in order to turn in a more believable performance.
Tyra has made People Magazine's "50 Most Beautiful" list not once, but
twice, and even wrote a revealing book about her life, "Tyra's Beauty
Inside & Out".
Tyra loves to play tennis, golf, volleyball, basketball, bowling and
snorkeling whenever she's in the Caribbean. When she's home in Los
Angeles, she loves going to dinner with her friends that aren't in the
entertainment industry. She was the first black model on the cover of
Sports Illustrated and the first black woman and first model to be
featured on the cover of GQ. She likes being part of modeling history
and breaking barriers. Tyra is a true super star, with a very bright
future.