While about half of the viewers that Oprah attracts are 50 and older, 65 percent of Banks’s are under 50, and she especially embraces and influences a particular sector — young girls from high school to age 34.

“I have always felt 19,” Banks went on to say. “It’s a little embarrassing, but I can easily put myself in the mind of a teenager. And I know what they think about, how they feel. Teenagers don’t like when you preach to them, but if you surround the medicine with a little bit of candy, they’ll listen. And then they’ll learn something.”-Tyra

“Of course I know what a supermodel looks like,” Banks said, “but I also know that a show filled with 13 girls that have the right look and no personality is not going to be relatable or watched. I’m more interested in fighting for the racial mix of the cast. Dark-skinned black girls are usually not famous — if you think of black girls, it’s light-skinned girls like me or Beyoncé or Halle Berry. When I’m casting a dark-skinned black girl on ‘Top Model,’ I’m sending a message to the little girl watching at home that she is beautiful.”

“I want power,” she said. “The power to make change. I have never been interested in being ‘hot’ or ‘cool.’ I’m not interested in walking down a bunch of red carpets, dating someone famous, being in a big movie. I’ve done those things, and it never felt right. But I do want power and not for financial reasons.