Tyra Banks owned up to some controversies surrounding her hit reality series America’s Next Top Model.
The 51-year-old supermodel launched the show in 2003. It ran for 24 seasons with Tyra serving as the main judge for all but one.
In 2020, the show went through a reckoning online with some viewers calling out troubling moments, including a photoshoot where contestants had their skin darkened to appear “biracial.”
Although Tyra acknowledged that the show sometimes got it wrong, she also praised it for breaking ground.
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She made the remarks while being honored as the Luminary Spotlight honoree at the ESSENCE Black Women in Hollywood Awards on Thursday (February 27).
“Over 20 years ago I created a show called America’s Next Top Model. And you guys have no idea how hard we fought to bring the diversity to that television show at a time when it didn’t exist; to show different beauties at a time when the world was like, ‘What? You casting that?’ A time when people in the fashion industry were telling me, ‘You putting the girls from the hood on your show,’“ she recalled, via People.
Tyra continued, saying that people called out her casting choices. “And we fought and we struggled and we made it happen,” she said.
“Did we get it right? Hell no. I said some dumb s-it,” the model admitted. “But I refuse to have my legacy be about some stuff linked together on the Internet when there were 24 cycles of changing the world. And I am so excited that I, and so many of us, have opened that door for others to follow.”
If you missed it, Tyra recently reunited with her castmates from an iconic movie.