Tyra Banks

Tyra Banks

To me, a hero is a person that someone looks up to because they have done something brave and courageous that has changed some people's lives in a positive way. A hero has to be someone that stood up to what they believe in. Heroes don't have to be people that save lives all the time, but they do have to be role models that make others want to do what they have done. My hero just so happens to be that kind of person. Tyra Banks.

Tyra Banks is an award winning model and accomplished talk show host. She lives in Los Angeles, California. Growing up, Tyra Banks was a very tall, skinny girl. She was always teased because of her awkward appearance. This made her self esteem very low. When she turned 17, she began to gain more weight and develop her now famous curves. That is when her modeling career took off and her self esteem improved.

So why is Tyra Banks my HERO? Tyra Banks isn't my hero because she's famous or because she was a former model. She's my hero for the good things she has done in her life. Through the years that Tyra had been modeling, she experienced a lot of pressure to be thin. So many models were starving themselves just to have the so called "perfect" body. Young girls started to hate their bodies because of the pressure in Hollywood and in the modeling industry to be thin. During this time, she developed a camp for girls called TZONE. At this camp, Tyra helps girls with low self esteem, most of it being caused by the pressure to be thin.

Tzone

Tyra Banks devotes a lot of her time to helping young girls. Just recently, Tyra did a show on young girls and how much they hated their bodies. She talked to them and asked them what they thought about heavier people. They all said that they thought those people were unhappy just because they weren't as skinny as twigs. When Tyra talked the the girls' mothers, some of them didn't even know what was going on in their daughter's lives. The young girls said that they would rather not eat because they were afraid they'd get fat or they were afraid they'd get made fun of. Tyra told each of the girls and their mothers that they'd be able to get help and she offered them to stay a week at her camp TZONE.

Developing a camp for young girls isn't the only generous thing that Tyra Banks has done. She recently dressed up as a homeless person and lived out on the street for a day. It was hard for her to experience something like this because she was one of those people that would just walk by and pay no attention to the people sitting out on the street begging for food or money, but when she was the one sitting their and begging for money or food she realized how hard it was for homeless people. After finding out how much of a hard life these homeless people really had, she invited some of the teens that were living on the street to her show. She gave them each $12,000 and a job so they could buy food for themselves and make money for the two or them. She then made sure that they had a place safe enough to live.

Tyra Banks is a real hero. She doesn't do all of this work just for fame. She does it because she experienced it when she was growing up and wanted to make an end to all of the problems going on in people's lives. Tyra has really made a big impact in my life. The work that she does for others makes me want to be just like her. It had always shocked me that she cared so much about younger girls and how they felt about themselves (and mostly their bodies) when she was famous for her body. Tyra Banks isn't just some talk show host or former Victoria's Secret Model, she's my hero.