Tyra Lynne Banks

When Banks was 15 years old, she started modeling besides school in Los Angeles. Later, when she was in search of a model agency, she was rejected by four modeling agencies before she got signed by Elite Model Management at age 17. When she got the opportunity to model in Europe, she decided to put college on hold to move to Milan. In her first runway season, she was booked a record of 25 shows at Paris fashion week. She would later on grace covers of ELLE and Vogue Spain. She walked the runways for Chanel, Isaac Mizrahi, Anna Sui and Fendi as well as appearing in ad campaigns for Dolce & Gabbana, Yves Saint Laurent and Ralph Lauren. In the mid-1990's, Banks returned to America to do more commercial modeling.
Banks was the first African American woman on the covers of GQ and the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue. In 1997, she received the VH1 award for Supermodel of the Year. That same year, she became the first-ever African American chosen for the cover of the Victoria's Secret catalog. She is one of the original Victoria's Secret Angels.
In 2010, Banks re-signed with her former modeling agency IMG Models. Banks is now a contributor of Vogue Italia's website.