hopes her new ice cream company, named after her signature modeling expression of “smiling with your eyes,” is the start of an empire with a reach and scope akin to Disney.
Smize comprises not only a collection of seven ice cream flavors, including The Best Vanilla I Ever Had, Cookie Caramel Queen and Chocolate Barbeque , but also a cast of original animated characters including DJ Splitz and Lil Y . “We’re going to do movies and cartoons,” Banks says. “We have a book proposal about DJ Splitz being the matriarch of the family and her grandson Lil Y who thinks he has magic, but he doesn’t.
Surveying today’s modeling landscape, where diversity is more encouraged and supported than ever, Banks says she never thought she’d see such progress. “With ‘America’s Next Top Model,’ we did things and people looked at us like we were crazy. I would send girls that were thicker, size 12 and 14 — I’m a 12 right now — to castings, and they didn’t have clothes for them,” she says. “As much as I was trying to make change, the industry wasn’t ready for it.
Banks has undoubtedly conquered the worlds of modeling, television and even publishing with her New York Times best-selling young adult novel, “Modelland.” She did, however, encounter controversy after segments from early “Next Top Model” episodes resurfaced during the onset of #MeToo and Times Up, and she was called out for being less than complimentary about contestants’ looks, among other things. Banks has since apologized.
My PR business could make me the next PT Barnum, or Kermit the Frog
That famous Disney ice cream 🙄
👎🏾
first,get a billion dollars and an adorable rodent.
😍