Tyra Banks recently announced plans to open a Tyra Banks TZONE at the Lower Eastside Girls Club, which will be a space within the club's new Center for Community. The new community building, which will also hold a bakery, studio space, wellness center and planetarium, and the headquarters for Banks' leadership development center will open next year.
Banks' TZONE project was created in 1999 as a summer camp series that helps build self-esteem among young girls. After completing her Harvard University executive education program, Banks reevaluated the business and decided to focus her energy on empowering young girls and helping females pursue their entrepreneurship dreams instead.
“What I don’t want to be is Tyra, the ‘celebrity girl,’ coming here and the girls being excited when they see me,” she tells the New York Times. “I want them to be numb to me. I can do normal work here and they can see me, to know that this is what a business is. It’s not about living on a red carpet. I am a businesswoman who goes to work every single day.”
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