WARNING - CURVES AHEAD: Tyra Banks first made waves on the cover of Sports Illustrated (SI) in 1996. Now, she has made another splash with her third appearance on the cover of the magazine's swimsuit issue.

"This is for everybody who has been told that they are not good enough because of their body, their age, their everything," posted Banks, 45, who quit modelling 13 years ago to become an entrepreneur.

She created America's Next Top Model, a reality show which debuted in 2003 and "grew out of the pain of being told you are too black, too curvy, not cookie-cutter enough".

"Ultimately, we ended up with a show that was in 186 countries and in 40 different international versions, and we used that to broaden the idea of diversity in so many ways: age, height, weight..."

Banks walked the talk when it came to preparing for the latest SI shoot. "I thought: 'Let me get it together and look like Tyra back in the day,'" she told The New York Times.

"But then I suddenly thought: 'Why am I going to force (myself to slim down for the photographer)? I am hungry, and I want a pizza.'"