Tyra Banks

You have what it takes to be a victorious independent fearless woman.

I'm obsessed by Instagram.

My fingers used to hurt really bad when I played guitar. I stopped because of it.

I went from being very popular and the head of the clique in the sixth grade to having, like, kid depression in the seventh grade. Not leaving the house. Not looking people in the eye... My body made me feel bad at everything.

If I tried to start modeling right now, I wouldn't be a supermodel because it's all about celebrity.

I think of dystopian as 'Mad Max,' as 'Book of Eli,' as the world is ending.

I try to keep my private life kind of private.

I don't go to the cool, trendy restaurants. I go to either the holes in the wall or the super-fancy restaurants where there are no cool people.

When modeling agencies were saying that I was too big and gaining weight, my mom said, 'OK, we're going to discuss what they're saying over pizza, and we're going to plan the future of your career which doesn't involve you having to be skinny.'

Don't contour with blush - that's so eighties. It was an amazing trend then, but it's not hot now. Instead, go for a neutral contour color that's one or two shades deeper than your skin tone.

I was backstage in Paris and saw Cindy Crawford doing House Of Style. I thought, I would love to to be in control of my career.

On 'America's Top Model,' I've always told my girls to smile with their eyes. We call it 'smizing.' Over the years, it's actually become part of pop culture. I would be walking down the street, and girls would say, 'Smize!'

Journalists told me that a talk show wouldn't work. Some told me I was going to get canceled before my first season was up.

You can't model for the rest of your life, so it is important to diversify your career.

I had had an extroverted personality with a lot of friends, but when I lost the weight and grew so tall, I withdrew within myself.

I'm competitive with myself. I always try to push past my own borders.

Now I know that I should take better care of myself when I'm under an intense deadline, or else my body is gonna act in certain ways that are not good.

One of the big, most underlying messages for me is celebrating beauty that is not typical.

From offstage until the moment I walk onstage, I constantly tweak my talk show and 'Top Model', but at the same time, I often leave my private life by the wayside.

Don't save bold lashes and red lips for nighttime - do it in the day!

I did an episode on my talk show on cellulite, and I brought seven women into a dressing room at Nordstrom's in L.A., and we all sat and talked about our cellulite.

One thing my mom used to tell me was to look to the other side, and know that my present is not going to be everything. So if I'm having a bad day, she goes, 'Just imagine tomorrow. This is going to be over. This is going to be done with.'

I haven't seen the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame, the Louvre. I haven't seen anything. I don't really care.

With the whole supermodel thing, even when you're not really modeling anymore, people still call me that. And I'm like '... retired.'

Models now need to promote themselves, think like businesswomen and diversify their careers by doing other things. Chances are very slim that a mere model will become a household name today.

I think every woman would want to do something about their cellulite!

I created 'America's Next Top Model' one-hundred percent. I was in my kitchen making tea one morning, and I looked out the window, and the idea popped into my head. I wanted it to be 'American Idol' meets 'Ford Supermodel of the Year' meets 'The Real World.'

I was always a good student. I wasn't the A-plus student, but I studied really hard, and I probably had a 3.2. I always wished that I had the capacity to get straight A's, but I didn't. I didn't beat myself up about it, but I really studied hard for my grades.

A smart model is a good model.

I have a poverty demon. I'll ask my accountant if I can afford something, and he'll say, 'What are you talking about?'

In high school I definitely had a clique of friends. And what I loved about it was that we were healthy and good girls.

I was embarrassed when a businessman friend asked, 'What's the yearly budget of your talk show? What's the per-episode budget?' And I looked at him with these blank, typical-model eyes and said, 'I don't know.' I call myself a businesswoman, and I don't know that?

I don't have to have a child come from my womb to have a connection. Children that are already born are beautiful to me. I can definitely be a mother to them.

I don't know how to be sexy on a date. Put up a camera and a wind machine, and I'll give you sexy. Put me at a dinner table with some candlelight and the moon shining in and, oh, I will give you dork.

I've had my heart broken one too many times.

I do look at 'Modelland' as a franchise.

Us brown-skinned girls get ashy if we don't moisturize.

What keeps me up at night? Sometimes it's day-to-day work stuff. And a lot of the times, it's, 'Am I making the wrong decisions in terms of reaching young women?'

I have scars on the backs of my arms from dressers in Paris scraping me with pins as I was taking a shirt or gown off.

I am protective of my own personal life, but I must confess that I enjoy watching people that don't mind telling it all.

Flaws are awesome - so, 'flawsome!' I love making up a word.

Sephora is fantastic. I go in there. I get lost. There are so many great things in there.

I know the pain of somebody who's too thin and the pain of somebody that people say is too big.

I ain't no cougar.

I love Roald Dahl.

I am a businesswoman who goes to work every single day.

I love Boston; it's like Paris.

I used to love writing in my journal.

I'm not in a position to tell heavy people anything.

It is important for women to feel beautiful when she looks in the mirror, and I tell women, 'If you don't feel beautiful, find one thing that you can look in that mirror and say, 'That is beautiful.'

I'm a lover of fashion websites.

If you can think psychographically and not demographically, you can really target a lot more audiences.

I want to be like the athletes who seem stuck in time. When you see them at 50, you say they probably can still run like a champ.

I think I'm too young to be a mogul. I think I'm too young for that.

I am intimidated by that eyeliner in a pot. You have to take a brush and wet it and then dip it in and get it straight. It's just a mess.

My natural hair texture is very kinky.

I wanted to be a film and television writer and producer.

We are often told we can't have brains and beauty, and I really hope that my message is that you can put on that red lip and curl your hair and put on that power dress - you don't have to sacrifice one for the other.

I'm a perfectionist. Sometimes I have to remind myself that it's okay if there are flaws here and there.

I love being able to go to a store, let's say... a store like Topshop or Zara or maybe even Macy's, depends on what department, and not have to look at the price tag.

You don't have to have a ring on your finger to say, 'I love you.'

Stop saying these negative things about yourself. Look in the mirror and find something about yourself that's positive and celebrate that!

Every woman has... self doubt.

I'm frugal. I've always been this way. When I was young, my mom would give me my allowance, and I'd peel off a little each week and have some to spare.

It's not like I want to hop on a bandwagon, because I said it 15 years ago - bringing a child into your life who is not genetically yours is one of the most beautiful things you can do. But I'm also interested in having my own baby, too.

Believe it or not, I don't wake up looking like a supermodel.

I have a big forehead, and I got made fun of all time. When I was a little girl, they used to call me 'five-head.'

I always feel great when I don't have clothes on.

I don't think me walking away from modeling was scary for me. In hindsight, I think it was very risky, when you talk about risk. Because it paid the bills.

I know some women are intimidated by makeup.

The one thing I like about being a celebrity more than anything is being able to get into any restaurant I want.

I love food and feel that it is something that should be enjoyed. I eat whatever I want. I just don't overeat.

I have so many goals.

I don't want to use the term 'plus-size,' because, to me, what the hell is that? It just doesn't have a positive connotation to it. I tend to not use it.

By no means am I trying to change the modeling industry.

My freshman year, I ran for student class president and lost. The next year, I ran for student class vice president, and I won.

Black women have always been these vixens, these animalistic erotic women. Why can't we just be the sexy American girl next door?

I've made millions of dollars with the body I have, so where's the pain in that?

With 'America's Next Top Model,' I've always cast girls who the industry might call 'plus size' but I like to call 'fiercely real.' That was always important to me.

I went through an obsession with eyebrows. I used to paint my eyebrows really, really strong. I look back now, and some were a little bit strong.

As I look into the future, I see radical changes in both how people 'attain beauty,' and how the world perceives beauty. In general, I believe traditional beauty will be less valuable - and more uniqueness will be heralded.

It was hard to get guys to notice me, period, because I was so skinny and all my friends were curvy. Plus, I used to be very nervous in front of guys.

I went to school for me - I didn't do it to make any sort of statement. So the very first year I was in school, I wasn't there under my own name. It was very incognito.

Just because you don't know if other people are experiencing the same thing as you are, it doesn't mean that it's not happening. Everybody doesn't necessarily share everything. Just know that what you're going through, other people are going through it, too.

Rihanna told me her parents used to argue so intensely, she used to get these headaches, these migraines that were almost not even treatable with medicine. The moment her parents separated, her migraines went away.

I have worn fake hair since I was 17 years old.

I don't have the best self esteem; mine wavers month to month, but I know how to pick myself up.

Years ago, when I first started wearing hair extensions, I would get mail from young girls, or young girls would come up to me and they would say, 'Tyra you have the most beautiful hair, like I could never grow hair like that!' And I would say 'Child, this is a weave!'

It's kind of embarrassing, but in my early 20s, I used to want to be a princess. But I didn't want to have to marry somebody in order to do it!

I would love to do Rihanna's makeup. I love her cupid's bow!

I don't think cellulite is great - that's not a flaw that I want in a photo by any means! I retouch that crap out. But I tell women that I'm retouching it out.

You have what it takes to be a victorious, independent, fearless woman.

I loved planning 'The Tyra Show' more than actually having to do it. I loved coming up with show ideas, honing each program and crafting it. I'm more excited being in a meeting than being on TV.

Its so important to understand your good attendance ups your chances of graduating.

I love the confidence that makeup gives me.

I'm very comfortable speaking to millions of people, but not comfortable in a small, intimate social setting. Like cocktail hour. I get very panicky.

I've always seen modeling as a stepping stone.

Even when I was a teen model, I didn't think it was fair that I had to enter the acting world to get insurance.

I don't wake up with naturally sculpted cheekbones - I paint them on!

I've helped some of my classmates on how to strategize to get to the next level of their businesses. And it's interesting, because here I am sitting there from the entertainment industry and the fashion industry, and I'm giving a billionaire that has a business that's been in his family for 300 years - I'm giving him advice about strategy!