Tyra Lynne Banks, also known as BanX, is an American model, television personality, producer, writer, and actress. Born in Inglewood, California, she began her career as a model at the age of 15 and was the first Black American woman to be featured on the covers of GQ and the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue, on which she appeared three times. Banks was one of only a few Black models to achieve Supermodel status. She was a Victoria's Secret Angel from 1997 to 2005. By the early 2000s, Banks was one of the world's top-earning models.
Banks in 2012
Banks at Cannes Film Festival in 2000
Banks at a book signing in 1995
Banks visiting patients at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., on December 19, 2003
Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue
The Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue is published annually by American magazine Sports Illustrated and features female fashion models, celebrities and athletes wearing swimwear in various locales around the world. The highly coveted cover photograph has been considered as the arbiter of supermodel succession. The issue carries advertising that, in 2005, amounted to US$35 million in value. First published in 1964, it is credited with making the bikini, invented in 1946, a legitimate piece of apparel.
The first swimsuit issue cover, released on January 20, 1964, featuring Babette March