Modelland (63 page)
Authors: Tyra Banks
My brother, Devin, you are amazing. You serve our country and make me feel so safe when I go to bed at night. I know you always say how proud of me you are. You will never truly understand just how proud of you
I
am, Devy. That fact that you are my brother has me overflowing with admiration. And our mutual love of all things Walt Disney has shown us that all dreams are possible. Thanks for exposing even more of Mr. Disney’s life to me. You and Walt are my heroes. Luv, Whop.
Daddy, no matter how old I get, I know I will always be your little girl. Thanks for showering me with so much love. Thanks for taking me to Disneyland multiple times a year when I was young. Experiencing that magical place allowed me to dream up Modelland. Thanks for always calling to check up on me; you seem to have some SixxSensa for when I am stressed. Buster loves you, Daddy.
And Ma, thanks for snapping my author photo. You took my first modeling photos
and
first fiction-author pic. Cool! And thank you so much for carving out a huge block of your precious time to read every last word of that first thousand-page manuscript and giving me the harsh, unfiltered truth. You are truly the world’s most lovely, most beautiful, most loyal and caring Intoxibella who ever was and ever will be. Long live the original Ci~L.
TYRA BANKS was fifteen years old when she started modeling, the same age as
Modelland
’s Tookie De La Crème. After establishing a supermodel career she could never have dreamed of, Tyra tackled the world of television, creating the hit show
America’s Next Top Model
, which is seen in over 170 countries, and her two-time Emmy-award-winning talk show,
The Tyra Show
, to become the super businesswoman she always wanted to be. Tyra is a leading voice in empowering girls and is dedicated to expanding the definition of beauty worldwide.
Tyra invested five years in conceiving and writing
Modelland
, her first book of fiction. Her lifelong love of reading and storytelling is deeply embedded in every page. She was born in Los Angeles, lives in New York City, and has a vacation home in Modelland, where she is feverishly working on the next Modelland novel.
