Tyra Banks Launches Teen Model Competition
Tyra Banks, best known now as the creator and presenter of America’s Next Top Model has announced a new competition, but this competition is nothing to do with ANTM, but will be part of her ‘The Tyra Show.’ Called ‘Tyra’s Fiercely Real Teen Model Search’ the contest is only open to aspiring plus size teen models. As she has already done with height in the last season of America’s Next Top Model, Tyra now seeks to do with shape. The reason the competition is for the benefit of teenage girls, to try and dispel the negative connotations of the label ‘plus-size’ model for susceptible adolescent girls and to show them that what is considered plus-size in the modelling world is considered normal outside of that industry. However, this would seem at odds with Tyra’s own dramatic weight-loss, so one wonders how she can celebrate the figures of teens who are over a size 0, while conversely dieting herself in order to regain her model figure.
The winner of the competition will win a one year contract with Wilhemina modelling agency. The finalists will appear on the Tyra Show on March the 2nd and the winner announced the following day. The competitors will thus avoid the often harsh criticism and stress of the elimination process that is all part of America’s Next Top Model.
Perhaps Ms Banks’s continual moves to shake up our perceptions of what beauty is within the fashion and modelling industry is finally paying off. as the winner of the last cycle of ANTM is the first model from the competition to hit the big time. She has been hired as the face of Alexander McQueen’s Spring/Summer collection for 2011, despite the fact that she is smaller in height than is usually required for a model.
If you or anyone you know is interested in registering for this competition you must be between 13 and 19 years old, a size 12-20 and 5′9″ or taller. Applicants can register at the Tyra Show website: http://tyrashow.warnerbros.com/fun/teenmodelsearch/registration.php
