50 is the new 30, according to Tyra Banks
The model, TV personality, and ice cream brand founder is reveling in turning 50.
Tyra Banks is 49 going on 30.
The top model is dishing about what it felt like to be included in Karen Millen’s ICONS campaign as her 50th birthday approaches in a new exclusive with People magazine. In addition to not feeling “insecure” about reaching the milestone age, Banks is claiming it as the new prime age.
“I think 50 is the new 30s,” she said. She added, “When I look in the mirror, I don’t see it.”
She said she has not done “age plastic surgery stuff” yet. She stressed that she is not against getting plastic surgery, she just hasn’t gone down that route yet.
“Maybe I’ll need a little something something — I am 50 even though I’m not [yet]. But I’m not insecure about it,” she said.
She explained that she’s been saying she’s 50 even though her birthday isn’t until Dec. 4, as an excuse to be more authentic.
“When people ask me I say, ‘I ain’t doing that — I’m 50. Or, ‘I’m just going to tell you what I think, because I’m 50.'”
She has extended this mindset to her modeling career as well. Banks said she’s at a point in her career where she can take on campaigns only if “they feel right.” She also said, that while she doesn’t have the body she used to when she was on the runways in the ’90s and early aughts, she feels empowered to show up in her body as it is now.
She said, “I feel empowered. Sometimes I’ll go to a photo shoot, and I’ll be like, ‘This stuff ain’t going fit me. It ain’t going to fit right.’ I’m going to have to do all these tricks and stuff. But I feel proud to have these clothes and that they look so good.”
Banks has had an impressive career containing many empowering moments. She was the first Black woman to have a solo cover of the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue in 1997, and she’s also been the oldest, when she did it again over 20 years later at the age of 45. (She’s since been surpassed by Martha Stewart in that category.) Banks hosted her eponymous Daytime Emmy Award-winning talk show for five seasons. The reality show she created, “America’s Next Top Model,” became a ratings darling and pop-cultural juggernaut. But, Banks also hasn’t been shy in sharing the myriad of barriers she’s had to overcome.
“Modeling and having to be in so many different places, and hearing you can’t do something every single day of my life because of my skin color [was stressful],” she told the publication. “Then after I got through some of that hearing, ‘Oh, you’re curvy and you can’t do this fashion show anymore, and you can’t do that.’ It was very difficult.”
Banks has lowkey plans for her upcoming major birthday. She said she wants to spend it with her son York, 7, and her rumored beau businessman Louis Bélanger-Martin. Although, according to her, she busted up her own party.
“My man, he wanted to throw this huge 50 year old birthday for me and I kind of found out about it,” she said. “I let him know, I have no desire to do that. I just want to go to Disneyland with the family.”
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