It’s a good thing Tyra Banks’ novel Modelland is a success because she almost went bald writing it! Get the deets on Tyra’s hair battle inside and see pics of her surprising 400 students in The Bronx today….
The stress of writing her first novel, Modelland, was so intense for Tyra Banks that she actually started losing her hair! In a revealing interview with the Wall Street Journal, the supermodel talks about the toll proving herself as an author (and a Harvard Business School student) took on her health.
She believes what led to her situation was the combination of all her projects and deadlines…
“In the beginning it was me trying to fit it in. I was staying in Lake Como shooting “Top Model” and I was working on it in the off days. It was a passion, so the discipline wasn’t hard. It was finding the time that was hard, and that was stressing me out and I felt the product was suffering.
Because my outline was so robust—40 pages long—they thought I could do it faster. My chapters are between 11 and 15 pages, and I could never finish one in one day.”
She adds that the pressure she put on herself wasn’t good.
“…(I)n hindsight that wasn’t healthy. How can I say this without tearing up? I got a little alopecia from the stress.”
But now, Tyra has been able to move past the stress and has really come into her own as a businesswoman, something she credits her business program at Harvard for helping her do.
“Trade-off. Professors explained to me that focus is great. Being the biggest and having your foot in a bunch of things is not necessarily the best thing. So I came back and focused the message of my company. Harvard said to wait two weeks before you tell your staff, but I couldn’t wait.
I said, “If it’s not about expanding the definition of beauty and making women feel physically and emotionally better about themselves, then we’re not doing it.”
We put away ideas to produce food. I’ve been approached to do real estate with homes geared toward first-time women buyers, spas, all kind of stuff, and we put those ideas away, too”
It sounds like Tyra has had a business epiphany over at Harvard. She finishes up her program in 2012.
Source: The YBF
