TYRA BANKS SPEAKS OUT ON BEING FAT

Former runway model Tyra Banks is speaking out on her recent weight gain.

While Tyra has always stressed the importance of body confidence – she revealed in the current issue of People magazine that it still hurt when tabloids ran an unflattering photo of her in a bathing suit under headlines that screamed, "America's Next Top Waddle" and "Tyra Porkchop."

In the interview, Tyra, 33, says, "I get so much mail from young girls who say, 'I look up to you, you're not as skinny as everyone else, I think you're beautiful…So when they say that my body is 'ugly' and 'disgusting,' what does that make those girls feel like?"

As for how Banks feels about her own 5'10" body – which she says is at 161 lbs. these days, about 30 lbs. heavier than when she landed on the cover of Sports Illustrated's swimsuit issue in 1997 – she says: "I still feel hot, but every day is different. It's when I put on the jeans that used to fit a year ago and don't fit now and give me the muffin top, that's when I say, 'Damn!' "

Tyra Banks, you go girl. I love it girlfriend.