Tyra Banks opens own ‘SMiZE Cream’ shop

Businesswoman, host, and model Tyra Banks opened her first ice cream shop in Santa Monica, California on July 3, available to dine-in guests and for nationwide delivery across the US.

The ice cream shop is named “SMiZE Cream,” a play on the model’s popular term “smize,” which she coined after years of modeling and hosting for America’s Next Top Model. It means to “smile with your eyes.”

SMiZE Cream comes in seven different flavors, including The Best Vanilla I Ever Had, Brownies I Love You, Purple Cookie Mon-star, Salted Caramel King, Chocolate Barbecue, Caramel Cookie Queen, and Strawberry Birth-yay Cake. They come in eight and 14- ounce packages. Each flavor of ice cream comes with a cookie dough surprise at the bottom.

Banks worked with Dr. Maya Warren, the 25th The Amazing Race winner with a doctorate in food science, for what they call an “all-natural, super-premium ice cream.”

The ice cream brand and shop is only the first step in a long line of businesses the model hopes to start. In an interview with Variety, Banks shares that she looks up to Walt Disney and that she hopes her newest food venture will help her achieve a legacy similar to the creator of Disney.

Calling SMiZE Cream an entertainment company that happens to sell ice cream, Banks wishes to push the company forward with SMiZE Cream original characters like DJ Splitz and Lil Y, both inspired by her mom and son. In the future, she wants to work on books, cartoons, and movies centered around the SMiZE Cream characters.

The 47-year-old entrepreneur’s next project is Modelland, an amusement park that “makes you feel like a model,” which will be a short walk from her newly-opened Smize Cream shop in Santa Monica Place. The amusement park was supposed to open in May 2020 but was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. – with reports from Adrian Soriano/Rappler.com

Adrian Soriano is a Rappler intern.