America's Next Top Model had an incredible run with 24 seasons from 2003 to 2018. It was the first show of its kind, as aspiring models—some with no experience whatsoever—tried to make their dreams come true on reality television. Hosted and created by Tyra Banks, the show had its fair share of incredible, outlandish, and straight-up shocking moments that, looking back, are hard to believe actually happened.
Between contestants having their heads shaved, receiving disastrous dye jobs, receiving dental work, or undergoing racially insensitive makeovers to “transform” into different ethnicities, the show has been the subject of ongoing discourse regarding its ethics. Viral compilations have circulated over the years, highlighting some of the eyebrow-raising things Banks and the judges said and did to the young women competing.
Banks addressed the drama in 2020 on X, formerly known as Twitter, saying she agreed with some of the posts about the insensitivity on the show, saying those were some "really off choices." Last week, she revisited it, owning up to the fact that not everything went right on the show.
On Thursday, the ESSENCE March/April 2025 cover star attended the Black Women in Hollywood Awards, as the first-ever Luminary Spotlight honoree. As she accepted her award, she spoke about diversity and how ANTM pushed boundaries in the industry. "You guys have no idea how hard we fought to bring 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?’” she explained.
The model recalled how the fashion industry at the time questioned her choices. “People would ask me, ‘You putting the girls from the hood on your show?’ I was like, ‘Why can the girl from the trailer park become a supermodel, but the girl that’s chillin’ in the park in the hood can’t?’ And we fought, and we struggled, and we made it happen,” she said.
The 51-year-old then addressed the criticism the show has received, especially on social media with viral clips resurfacing. “Did we get it right? Hell no. I said some dumb s–t,” she 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.”
She went on to acknowledge how the show helped open doors in the industry, concluding her speech by saying, "And now my 51-year-old, dimpled, cellulite-covered bigger tummy and 10 million times bigger titties is walking through that door that I opened, with all of us behind us on that runway saying, ‘Baby, it’s just the beginning.’”
For the special event, Banks arrived on the red carpet matching with her mother, Carolyn London.