Tyra Banks spilled all the tea when she came to Dallas.
"I really can't help myself," she says. "I have this honesty that is just raw and real. I got it from my mom. I think it's kinda here to stay."
The retired supermodel has made a name for herself across several areas; the list could go on and has for some time. Banks entered the high fashion world as a model when she was only 15.
Her mother's advice soon after? "Plan for the end at the beginning."
Explain, TyTy: "I was one of the hottest models in Paris. I was the new girl, and everybody was saying, ... 'you're the girl, you're the girl,' and my mom whispered in my ear: 'You're doing so well and I'm so proud of you but you remember the girls from seasons past. Where are they now? I want you to enjoy this but I want you to be able to leave before this industry leaves you.' At that moment, I started thinking about other things I wanted to do."
Pop culture -- and education as she teaches branding at Stanford -- has been the beneficiary of her mother's candor.
And now she's written a book with her mother, Carolyn London. That's one of the main things the three of us talked about during a discussion and Q&A at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, April 11, at Wyly Theatre. (It's one of three events like this she'll do; the others are in New York.)
Perfect is Boring: 10 Things My Crazy, Fierce Mama Taught Me About Beauty, Booty, and Being a Boss is about their relationship and the advice that her mother gave her along the way to world dominance. (Or at least VH1, on which the season finale of her America's Top Model will air at 7 p.m. Tuesday, April 10.)
It's a parenting guide for those who know they aren't perfect and never will be.
No stone is left unturned in the self-help (?) book. Truth.
"My mom and I just didn't really have taboo topics at all," she says. "And we've had so many conversations with different moms and daughters and sons and families that just wish that they could have that freedom with their kids or their parents. I hear it from guys and girls. My mom and I said, 'You know what, let's write a book and talk about all the lessons, and even the taboo things that we discussed and she taught me that in turn made me who I am today."
It was her mother's idea. But Banks, as always, took charge, mostly because she "loves, loves, loves writing," and well, that's what she does.
"My mom and I had fights," she says. "She wasn't used to me being the boss, and like understanding this process. I'm like, 'Mom, you can't start the sentence like that' or 'that whole paragraph is boring. I want this to be a page turner and that's not a page-turner moment. I know it's a real moment that happened but it doesn't turn pages and we have to take that out.' So it was a lot of that."
Without her mom, though, a boss might not be on the long list of job titles that Banks has held: model; talk-show host; novelist (Modelland); entrepreneur; producer; teacher; and (don't tell her this is written down) actress.
"Acting is just my side hustle," she says.
"I don't even like to be called an actress. ... I'm not an actress. I've acted."
Acting is a gift, but it's not hers.
"It's not something for me that comes very naturally. I have to get a coach, I have to study, I have to do so much. So I feel like if it takes that much work, maybe it's not my calling. So I do it every now and then ... I think my calling is to entertain and to make change and to have this social enterprise."
Even still, look out for Life-Size 2 coming out in December. And then "this huge project that I'm not even ready to talk about in 2019," something in the works for 10 years, she says.
Believe her, because she just can't help herself. She really can't.
