On Saturday, Tyra Banks celebrated her 48th birthday by posting pictures of herself in a bathing suit along with a body-positive message on Instagram.

“My body is fuller. And so is my mind,” wrote Banks on her post.

She also said that every year, her body is changing.

Banks has been an advocate for body positivity and has shared her experiences with the discrimination she faced within the modeling industry because of her curvy figure.

Her modeling career began at the age of 16 when she signed to Paris-based Elite Model Management.

Throughout her career, she appeared in editorials and graced the covers of magazines such as Vogue, Elle, Vanity Fair, and Harper’s Bazaar.

In 1993, Banks became the face of CoverGirl cosmetic campaigns and in 1996 she made history by becoming the first Black model to appear on the cover of Sports Illustrated Swimsuit and the cover of GQ.

Despite reaching supermodel status and accumulating a list of achievements, Banks still fell victim to the pressures of an industry where the standard is a thin body.

Banks said that at the peak of her high fashion modeling career, designers at Milan Fashion week told her she was getting “too big.”

“I started crying. I was like, ‘Mom, OK, what do I do. Should I diet? Should I work out twice a day? Should I just have salads for breakfast, lunch, and dinner?’” she told Business Insider in 2018.

She said that her mom was able to provide her “the tools, self-esteem, and self-love” she needed to overcome the pressures and skip the dieting.

Since then, Banks has used her platform to advocate for the diversity of women’s bodies and Black women within the modeling industry.

She launched her own modeling competition, America’s Next Top Model, and her talk show, The Tyra Banks Show, in which she often spoke about the issues in the modeling industry and tried to promote self-love.

In 2019, Banks returned to modeling and graced the cover of Sports Illustrated Swimsuit for a second time.

“I want to show that modeling has no age. I’m coming out of retirement to practice what I preach,” she said at the time.

Banks continues to be a champion for body positivity and Black women and even paid tribute to other Black supermodels earlier this year.

Photo Credit: Getty Images