Some memes come and go, but the America’s Next Top Model one of Tyra Banks yelling “I was rooting for you, we were all rooting for you” is one that has truly stood the test of time.<\/p>\n
The meme is perfect for so many occasions, although it’s a classic one for when your bestie gets back with her ex or you discover your favourite cast member has had a controversial past.<\/p>\n
Still, as brutal as the words in the meme might be, it turns out the backstory behind the Tyra Banks is even worse.<\/p>\n
So, what’s exactly the context of this whole thing?<\/p>\n
Well, the meme comes from a scene in America’s Next Top Model, and during that episode two girls called Tiffany and Rebecca were both set to leave the competition after being eliminated.<\/p>\n
Right before the pair were set to leave and go home, Tiffany spoke up and tried to make light of the situation, which Tyra was less than impressed with.<\/p>\n
When Tyra challenged Tiffany about seeming unbothered about her elimination from the show, Tiffany responded: “Looks can be deceiving. I’m hurt. I can\u2019t change it, Tyra. I\u2019m sick of crying about stuff that I cannot change. I\u2019m sick of being disappointed.\u201d<\/p>\n
And that fateful line was what created the iconic meme, with Tyra Banks going absolutely ballistic at poor Tiffany.<\/p>\n
She yelled: “Be quiet, Tiffany. Be quiet! What is wrong with you? STOP I. I have never in my life yelled at a girl like this. When my mother yells like this it’s because she loves me.<\/p>\n
“I was rooting for you, we were all rooting for you! How dare you!”<\/p>\n
But there was even more to the moment, as she continued: “Learn something from this! When you go to bed at night, you lay there and you take responsibility for yourself.<\/p>\n
“Because nobody’s going to take responsibility for you. You rolling your eyes… it’s because you’ve heard it all before.”<\/p>\n
She added: “You don’t know where the hell I come from. You have no idea what I’ve been through, but I’m not a victim. I grow from it and I learn. Take responsibility for yourself!”<\/p>\n
Tyra later admitted that she wished she hadn’t aired the emotional moment, and Tiffany also revealed that the moment was “1,000 times worse” than what viewers saw.<\/p>\n
As traumatic as the moment might have been, it certainly gave us some stellar reality TV.<\/p>\n
For all the latest reality TV cast member news, scandals, gossip and updates \u2013 like\u00a0<\/i>Reality Shrine<\/a><\/i>\u00a0on\u00a0<\/i>Facebook<\/a><\/i>.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This is absolutely brutal<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":249734183,"featured_media":31849,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1358],"tags":[2145,1438,2161],"class_list":["post-31843","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-americas-next-top-model","tag-netflix","tag-tyra-banks"],"acf":[],"parsely":{"version":"1.1.0","canonical_url":"https:\/\/realitytvshrine.com\/realityshrine\/2025\/09\/04\/it-turns-out-the-real-backstory-behind-the-tyra-banks-meme-is-way-worse-than-we-all-thought\/","smart_links":{"inbound":0,"outbound":0},"traffic_boost_suggestions_count":0,"meta":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","headline":"The backstory behind ANTM’s ‘we were all rooting for you’ was way worse than we all thought","url":"http:\/\/thetab.com\/realityshrine\/2025\/09\/04\/it-turns-out-the-real-backstory-behind-the-tyra-banks-meme-is-way-worse-than-we-all-thought\/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"http:\/\/thetab.com\/realityshrine\/2025\/09\/04\/it-turns-out-the-real-backstory-behind-the-tyra-banks-meme-is-way-worse-than-we-all-thought\/"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/cdn.realitytvshrine.com\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Ellie-New-Featured-Images-2025-09-04T123613.306-150x150.png","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https:\/\/cdn.realitytvshrine.com\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Ellie-New-Featured-Images-2025-09-04T123613.306.png"},"articleSection":"News","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Ellie Ring"}],"creator":["Ellie Ring"],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Reality Shrine","logo":"https:\/\/realitytvshrine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/cropped-mX3_1x3z.png"},"keywords":["america's next top model","netflix","tyra banks"],"dateCreated":"2025-09-04T12:09:47Z","datePublished":"2025-09-04T12:09:47Z","dateModified":"2026-02-16T10:26:25Z"},"rendered":"