Seriously is she having a nervous breakdown or are we witnessing an epic ego death?
Its tough seeing her go out like this, especially during Black History Month, as one of the first high earning Black American models, Tyra helped push American standard size in the modeling industry. But, something is definitely off about her. She might not even be a bully but, displaying signs, like wash permanent press with bleach crazy.
With the Netflix documentary around American’s Next Top Model, she attempted to use the moment as a rebooting of her $30 million ANTM brand. Then that smize started to give Purge contestant and the disposition of everyone woman that survived a zombie apocalypse.
Maybe Victoria Secret owner, Les Wexner and this whole Epstein thing got her nervous. Being a principal brand ambassador for Victoria Secret, over 10 years, when Epstein was peak creep, that’s probably forcing her to rebrand and defend herself.
The Cringe Doc
The recent Top Model documentary wasn’t completely new for many. Signs of cracks started to show with the Hulu documentary “Victoria’s Secret: Angels and Demons,” of Les Wexner, Epstein, and modeling industry dropped 3 years after Epstein’s death.
Watching, the timeline of Tyra’s antics started to parallel the investigations arising in the late 2010s. As clips of her defending Victoria Secret during the Epstein situation increased, the tainted VS Brand, was bombarded with poorly aged narratives, and suspected attempts to deflect with failed outrage over Les being gay, plus sizes, Black models, and Dolls used in the shows.
Now with the decade long forensic study by Gen Z & Millennial women, looking back, they would not know their normalized environment was interwined with growing up in what was peak Epstein era.
And with the trafficking methods of recruiting thriving during Top Model, all people needed was a lot of free time (courtesy of the pandemic). From there, people started to put the pieces together.
Does She Deserve the Pile On?
Ehh, hearing from some of the Black girls who aspired to be models, Top Model became the American Idol of modeling for young women who didn’t know the right people to be discovered. The narrative of the modeling industry being racist was pushed hard, and yet, the amount of girls fighting for casting each season, into the toxic industry, some girls literally sought trauma as form of activism.
The problem, many of them had no real high fashion interest, beyond video girl status. Many barely knew of couture designers, even after 6 seasons of ANTM. A lot of insecurities were projected on Tyra and the show. And a personal theory is the show itself was Tyra’s trauma bonding of getting phased out in the industry. Possibly using the show as catharsis at the expense of other unsuspecting victims. If that’s true, shit was A24, Jigsaw level sadistic.
Lets Keep It A Bean
If models rail thin still had to loose weight and go to the gym, it wasn’t clear why girls who never watched their weight or even tried were mad about meeting requirements. Blackity Black African models were getting selected so the accusations of colorism started fall apart. Expensive Euro standards didn’t meld well with American ready wear, and many of the women were proud about not knowing or wanting to know about salad forks and organza. At the end of the day, high fashion has had a requirement like any other job.
If you don’t know how to break down an engine for a tune up, you probably wouldn’t get hired at an auto shop. If a Black girl avoids White hair stylist because they can’t do the job, hey. In that particular industry everyone, even the naturally thin had to put forth effort to meet physicality standards of the buyers and sellers of that market.
In high fashion that size requirement was sample size, lower fabric costs, geared to who really bought clothes at those prices (at that time). Americans spent years not really giving a shit about being underweight. Big backing has been the privilege of America’s living 5 minutes from food or a fitness gym in almost every block. American women weren’t struggling, spending years drinking boiled boot soup to survive so, it felt more like a cultural standard that American women had to stop being bitter over. You’re not malnourished, be happy.
Tyra Exaggerated Her Place In Fashion
Tyra herself wasn’t essentially know as a high fashion model and even whined herself about not being selected in mass by haute couture due to her hips, etc. The reality Tyra wore fashion but wasn’t fashionable herself. She was commercially popular in modeling but, American fashion at that time (early 2000s) was more known for swimsuit, hip hop fashion, and ready wear. She’s was never Schiaparelli, she was Victoria Secret and Sports Illustrated, and that was perfectly fine, considering toned aesthetics had become North & South America’s modeling bread and butter. Technically Heidi Klum didn’t have a long high fashion career either, with her larger frame doing exceptionally well in swimsuit and ready wear.
Where She Lost Everyone
Tyra’s hypocrisy is pretty normal for Black people who live and have to engage with the reformed city girl, also known as the church lady. In the Black community when a woman was out in the streets, or exposed about how she ethically moved, when she reforms, she becomes annoying hell. These types are always overselling standards on anyone she feels needs to justify her behavior, citing so called “tough love,” to fix things she herself failed at understanding.
Tyra’s overall behavior feels like she’s trying to not just rewrite Top Models history but attempt to “What Had Happened Was” a lot of tactics used to recruit for the show, methods that eerily matched the grooming tactics openly discussed in the Epstein files. From “winning” a challenge by going out on a date with two wealth foreigners, to moving like a madam berating the Black girls not ready for high end exposure. And poor Shandy potentially being “Giuffre’d”, unconscious and participating in debaitable concent. It’s not fair to say she was connected but Epstein’s influence in American fashion was clearly embedded in the framework presented by Top model.
If a charm school element was pushed more, there might have been some room for misunderstanding but, Tyra was acting like she had a quota to meet and these girls had six weeks to get out on that track. Even calling each season a cycle felt more like “circuit” was really the goal. People should really wonder if her antics were par for the course and the visibility of Top Model simply caught strays.
ReBranded Rebrand
She now lives in Australia, after slipping out of a DC real estate contract, claiming ice cream is her life and always truly was (not modeling). But even that is being challenged based on Hot Ice Cream clashing with Australian food regulations. She’s clearly trying to land something. Maybe the juju she used to be successful has simply ran it’s course.
Read – https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-01-31/hot-ice-cream-tyra-banks-sydney-food/106283144
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