On the modeling industry:

"My biggest obstacle was that I was black and curvy."She says her agency once made a list titled, "Designers who will not book Tyra because of hips and breasts."

"My mother told me the whole thing as we were walking down the street in Milan. She said, ‘They say you're too curvy. Let's go order pizza.' We walked into a pizzeria, and we discussed a career change."

On being called "fat" in 2006:

"What bothered me is that they were saying there's something wrong with a woman's body if she's not super-skinny.

"I did not shed tears," Banks adds, "but I called my talk show and said, ‘I want to say, loud and clear, 'You can kiss my fat ass.''"