Seventeen: "I Intern for Tyra Banks!"

Oh. My. God. I thought while trying to play it cool. Tyra Banks is touching my hand! My! Hand! I couldn’t feel my legs, and I thought I was going to faint: It was a few weeks into my internship at Bankable Productions, Tyra’s entertainment company, which oversees America’s Next Top Model and The Tyra Show, and I’d been called into a conference room by my boss- not expecting to shake hands with the woman who’d been my inspiration for years.

From the very first season of Top Model, I loved Tyra, and how she’s never afraid to reveal the real side of herself or include people of all shapes and sizes. So I almost jumped out of my skin when one afternoon, my mom came home from the salon she owns and said Tyra’s executive assistant had been in on an appointment- and it turned out there was an internship I could apply for! I sent in my resume immediately and was invited for an interview. On the ride to the office, I was so excited and nervous that I started to cry. But I calmed down and focused on doing what I thought would make a good impression: making eye contact, shaking hands firmly, and sitting up straight. And in the end, I got the position!

Now I do general assistant jobs around the office, which means doing anything from archiving all the magazines and videos Tyra has ever appeared in to filing to pulling pictures from magazines for Tyra to look through for hair and makeup inspiration. My first day on the job, I was given a yellow pad and a pen and told not to go anywhere without them. There’s too much going on to trust your memory; you have to write everything down. Still, really paying attention to detail was a lesson I learned the hard way: One afternoon, I was helping prepare a big lunch meeting and had to get salads for everyone- I placed the order at a restaurant, ran to pick them up, made sure I had all the extra dressings, then got back to the office in the nick of time. But when I started unpacking the salads, I realized that one was missing: Tyra’s! I felt my heart sink. I started to run out of the building to get back to the restaurant, but it was too late- the meeting was starting! Tyra wasn’t mad; she said she’d just share a salad with someone else. But I was furious at myself for not catching the mistake. It was a huge eye-opener to always double-check whatever I’m doing. Now I’ll take my yellow pad anywhere- even the bathroom! Everyone works so hard here, so I want to work even harder. I take time at the end of each day to make sure the copy machine is full of paper and the kitchen is organized, so everything is ready to go the next day. And Tyra’s executive assistant told me that it’s exactly this kind of dedication that makes me stand apart as an intern.

April 2010
Seventeen Magazine