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On her hit show America’s Next Top Model, Tyra Banks has always stressed the importance of body confidence – but it still hurt when tabloids ran an unflattering photo of her in a bathing suit under headlines that screamed, “America’s Next Top Waddle” and “Tyra Porkchop.”

Now, for the first time in an exclusive interview with PEOPLE, Banks, 33, is publicly discussing her much-buzzed-about weight gain. “I get so much mail from young girls who say, ‘I look up to you, you’re not as skinny as everyone else, I think you’re beautiful,’ ” she says. ”

So when they say that my body is ‘ugly’ and ‘disgusting,’ what does that make those girls feel like?”