LL (returning MMW guest contributor!)
Tameka Jacobs, one of the models on “Deal Or No Deal?” has been in the news recently:

KCRA 3’s Rich Ibarra first met Jacobs just outside Stockton in 1983. She was just 3 years old and had been living in a foster home. Mary Brown had raised Jacobs since she was 4 months old and tried to adopt her, but there was a problem. Jacobs was half black, half white, and San Joaquin County officials felt she would be better off with an African-American family. Brown took her case all the way to the state Supreme Court. “This child has been with me 3 1/2 years, I’m the one she said Momma to, I sat up when she was having her teeth, she walked to me first, they can’t do this to children,” Brown said. The court ruled against Brown and Tameka left — her suitcase in one hand, a stuffed animal in the other. Brown stood alone weeping and never saw Jacobs again. Even now, Jacobs said it is difficult to watch Ibarra’s report from 23 years ago. She tried see Brown several years ago only to learn that Brown had passed away just a month before. “She gave her whole life, or a good portion, to loving me and not too many people experience that even with their birth parents. She did a lot for me and I thank her,” Jacobs said. In 2003 Jacobs met her birth mother and two sisters on the Montel show — people she didn’t know existed. “I want to see where I came from, what are my kids going to look like, who knows,” she said.

Seems like she’s been doing some great work on the side as well:

However, the glitz and glam of Tameka’s rising stardom have not gone to her head. Tameka keeps her feet firmly planted on the ground as she, like her mentor, Tyra Banks, reaches back to girls and young women in her situation. On her off days, Tameka counsels girls and young women who live in foster homes and adoption agencies. Every month she mentors, inspires, and gives hope to hundreds of girls and young women who are already, or are waiting to be adopted. She uses her own life as a lesson on how young women can grow to successfully create their own destinies, even if they come from a broken home.

A Wikipedia entry about Tameka is here.