Tyra Banks was rejected by 6 modelling agencies

Asked what doors were locked to her before she found fame, Banks told Glamour magazine: "Oh, so many. There was a door that was locked because I was a young black model and the first six agencies I knocked at said no - I think four of the six said, 'We already have a black girl'." 

"And then once I was successful, designers were like, 'You're getting too thick'. When I wanted to be a television producer, I had a lot of people tell me: 'Oh, you're a model, you could never do that. You walk runways in your underwear'."

The 41-year-old decided to go back to university because she wanted to have a self-funded company, reports femalefirst.co.uk.

"I'm obsessed with ownership. I want to have the say, not just a say. So, I needed to have the tools. I want to be a really strong leader," she said.