Tyra Banks to host 'Flawsome Ball' for girls club

NEW YORK — Tyra Banks will host a gala dubbed the "Flawsome Ball" to benefit a New York City girls club.

The former model and talk-show host was to announce the event Thursday.

Drake will perform at the ball, which is to benefit the Tyra Banks Tzone at the Lower Eastside Girls Club. Banks formed Tzone in 1999 as a weeklong camp for girls, but the organization is now making a permanent, physical home at the New York girls club.

The Flawsome Ball takes its name from a word coined by Banks that combines "flaws" and "awesome" to celebrate individuality. It will be held Oct. 18.

The 38-year-old Banks is an American model and media personality. She first became famous as a model, appearing twice on the cover of the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue and working for Victoria's Secret as one of their original Angels. Banks is the creator and host of the UPN/The CW reality television show America's Next Top Model, co-creator of True Beauty, and host of her own talk show, The Tyra Banks Show.

Banks is one of four African Americans and seven women to have repeatedly ranked among the world's most influential people by Time magazine.

She was born in Inglewood, California. She is the daughter of Caroline (née London; now London-Johnson), a medical photographer, and Donald Banks, a computer consultant. She has a brother, Devin, who is five years older. In 1980, when Banks was 6 years old, her parents divorced. Banks attended John Burroughs Middle School and graduated in 1991 from Immaculate Heart High School in Los Angeles.