Tyra Banks personally recruited America's Next Top Model’s first-ever contestant with vitiligo, Chantelle Brown-Young.

Tyra Banks On Chantelle Brown-Young

Banks has praised Brown-Young, revealing that when she was in search of contestants for the 21st cycle of America’s Next Top Model, the 20-year-old beauty kept popping up.

"She's absolutely beautiful," Banks said on E! News Wednesday. "We were looking [for contestants] and I just kept seeing this girl pop up, this beautiful, striking girl."

Banks added, "I reached out to her myself and told my team, ‘Find her! I want her here in a week.'"

Terrence Jenkins, an E! News personality who was co-hosting with Leah Remini, revealed that he too has vitiligo, a skin condition that causes white patches to form on one's skin. Watching Brown-Young on the season premiere of Top Model inspired him to be less conscious of his own skin condition, Jenkins admitted on-air.

"She inspired me when I saw photos of her," Jenkins told Banks. "I was like wow! She inspired me to show my spots instead of covering it up with makeup all the time."

Prior to getting recruited by Banks, Brown-Young had only been modeling for about a year and using Instagram to promote her work. Getting the call from the supermodel was life-chaning for her.

"I'd only been modeling for maybe a year before she found me, so I was pretty fresh," the model told People magazine. "The fact that she wanted me so badly for her show will stick with me for the rest of my life."

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Article by Chelsea Regan

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