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CNN Live Today

Tyra Banks Discusses Camp

Aired August 28, 2002 - 11:47   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Tyra Banks, she is a supermodel and an actress whose face and figure have graced some of the most respected runways and magazines around the world. Get this: Now she is exhibiting some model behavior with a special project that hits close to home. Banks is the founder and leader of Camp T-Zone, a special program for teenage girls age 13 through 15. It's a week-long residential camp in the mountains outside of Los Angeles. It enhances independence and self-esteem amongst these young teens. Campers learn self-empowerment through exercises and group discussion, and they learn to focus on the beauty that lies within.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TYRA BANKS, CAMP T-ZONE FOUNDER: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) is not Tyra. Tyra is in L.A., hanging, watching "Judge Judy" or something. My name is BBQ. I will only answer to BBQ at camp as well as you guys. There are no Jennifers. There are no Taniqas (ph). There are no Cynthias. There are no whatever. You guys are your camp names.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: See we cut that tape off too soon. I have got to find out what a camp name is all about.

Tyra Banks is with us this morning. You see her. She's there with us in our Los Angeles bureau.

Good morning, how are you doing?

BANKS: I'm good, how are you?

HARRIS: I'm doing great now that you're here.

What's a camp name? You you assign different names to these kids when they show up at camp?

BANKS: Yes, T-Zone is a safe place. It's T-Zone, like Tyra Zone. And it's a safe place so you leave behind your city life and leave behind all your insecurities. And it's like a rebirth and everybody renames themselves. At camp, my name is BBQ because I like barbecued ribs. Another girl, her name might be -- actually, this year we had a girl named Chocolate Shortcake because she -- she doesn't like strawberry shortcake, but she likes chocolate shortcake.

HARRIS: That works for me.

BANKS: So when you are at camp and you call on these girls and want them to open up and express their deepest insecurities and you call on Chocolate Shortcake, she is more apt to answer than, say, Crystal.

HARRIS: Yes, have you found that to be true? I was going to ask you about that, how tough it is to get some of these girls to open up.

BANKS: It really is great. The first night, a lot of the girls were really nervous, at least in night talks -- that was the morning circle that you just saw. But every night, I lead the night talk. The first night, we talked about girls player hating or hating against each other and girls having mean cliques and being very cliquey and competitive. The next night, we talked about sex, dating and relationship and do some role playing. I play a guy that would say all these negative things to the girls; I screamed to the crowd all these things that they could possibly hear growing up, for them to answer really strong and positive back to this quote-unquote "guy."

The last night is the most heart-wrenching night. It's the most emotional night. This is T-Zone's third year. And this is our most emotional night of all of the years. It is beauty and body image, the night where I lead the discussion and I ask the girls to close their eyes and find the most beautiful part of themselves. And they open their eyes and they discuss that. And I do another exercise and tell them to close their eyes and find the part of their body that they wish would just go away, that they just hate, that they feel that is their curse. Everybody wakes up crying.

HARRIS: It takes three days to break down their barriers in their minds, to get them to this point?

BANKS: Yes, we are there for a little bit less than a week. On that third or fourth night, when we discuss beauty and body image, a lot of the girls, as I said, they are opening up and they are talking about their insecurities, as well as that leads to other problems. Then they start talking about other problems with family members or this or that. But for some reason, that topic opens up so much. And the reason why that topic is important to me, because I know that as a fashion model and an actress, I put up with image and that it is so difficult to live up to. And I try to break it down to them and I talk about my flaws. I mean, I'm crying up there with them, and they are like, Wow, you have insecurities too?

HARRIS: See, that's what I wanted to ask you about, because I'm imagining that these girls see you in the same commercials that I see you in. They may not be thinking the same thing I think, but they see you in the same commercials. And the thing is they are probably comparing themselves to you, and they get with you in a camp, and here you are, you are the supermodel, you're the superstar, you're the icon here. And they may say anything to please you while you're there, while you're there, while you're with them. They want to impress you. But do you have any way to follow up with them to see how they do down the road, to see whether or not any of this stuff actually sticks?

BANKS: Yes, T-Zone, the first thing for each girl is the camp. But after that, we have follow-up sessions where we meet up together. We have fund-raising activities, so is like mentoring program. It is not just a once a year camp. And also, the very first day, the girls are surprised that I'm there when they're getting off the bus. They are surprised that I'm eating the camp food, sleeping in a cabin. They're like -- last year, they said they thought I was going to come around with a golf cart and waving and signing -- sending autographed photos.

HARRIS: That's what you celebrities normally do at these kind of things.

BANKS: Not me. This year, the girls were like, Where's your silk sheets and where's your castle in the woods? We know where you are going at night, you are not going to that cabin -- you exit out the back.

HARRIS: Exactly, you are staying at the motel down the street, basically.

BANKS: And I'm not. I am right there with them.

HARRIS: That's cool. That's good.

Listen, I also understand that you do some singing at this camp. I think we have some tape we want to check out.

BANKS: Yes.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BANKS: Five, 6 -- 5, 6, 7, 8!

CROWD (singing): My T-Zone sister, what's up, what's up, what's up? I got your back, girl, you know I'll back you up. I'll be there for you, no ifs, no ands, no buts. T-Zone sister, what's up, what's up, what's up?

T-Zone sister, what's up, what's up, what's up?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: My 8-year-old daughter, Laurin (ph), would see this and she would just go absolutely nuts. What is this all about?

BANKS: Actually, that's a song that I wrote myself.

HARRIS: No kidding?

BANKS: I actually wrote it at camp -- I wrote it at camp the first year. I was like, you know what, I want the girls to be chanting something. I want a T-Zone jam, a T-Zone cheer. And I was just sitting in my cabin, and I came up with that and I taught them the next day on the first year of T-Zone. It is about girl power and it's about girls backing each other up, because a lot of the times girls may be hurt by another girl. You know, like her best friend might have done something wrong to her and she doesn't trust girls any more. But I always tell my girls, Your boyfriend just cheated on you last week, so you haven't given up on the male species; so why do you not trust the female species? So I wrote that cheer to combat that.

HARRIS: Let me ask you about this. One thing I noticed, you had a pretty mixed crowd there. What kind of a crowd do you pull in there, cross-culture there? And do you find differences between the cultures of the girls that show up?

BANKS: I'm so glad you mentioned that. It is so important to me. I actually read every single application and I choose every single applicant.

HARRIS: Really?

BANKS: I read every single one of them. They are essay questions, so it is a lot of work. But it is important for know have T-Zone be as diverse as possible. A lot of the girls haven't seen other races in a relaxed atmosphere. I went to an elementary school and it was an all-black elementary school. So I wasn't even used to seeing other races growing up. T-Zone is so important to me.

There is a lot of stereotypes, actually. Our second year of T- Zone we had a stereotyping night, where each race of girls -- we would group them in races -- and they stood up and talked about every single stereotype and what they were not. And you know, that is also a very emotional night, and it just kind of breaks everything down. Also that beauty and body image night, I'll admit that I think different races, they get into a setting and they don't know anybody, so you tend to go to your own. The white girls (UNINTELLIGIBLE) here are the black girls, here are Asians, Latins. But after the body and beauty night, all the girls converge together because they realize that they all have the same problems.

HARRIS: No kidding. It sounds like you know what you need to do is have a camp like this for parents and a camp like this for boys, because they are also the ones that also shape these girls' self- images as well.

BANKS: It's so true. We are thinking about T-Zone for boys, actually, but they are not going to listen to me. I'm looking for some male celebrities to come and do that for me.

HARRIS: I bet the line of boys that would want to go to a camp where you are camp counselor, that line would be all the way out the door and down the street.

BANKS: They will be disappointed because I don't have no makeup, there's no hair. They will be like, That ain't Tyra Banks -- who's that?

(CROSSTALK)

HARRIS: No worries. No worries there.

Tyra Banks, thanks for coming in. We sure do appreciate that.

And good luck on that. I want to check back with you later on to see how that turns out down the road... BANKS: Thank you so much.

HARRIS: ... maybe talk with you again about this some more. Good luck.

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