Background

Ashley Graham was born in Lincoln, Nebraska, on October 30, 1987. Her father is a database marketer, and her mother is a homemaker. Ashley grew up with her two younger sisters. Ashley was full-figured even as a kid. Puberty hit her when she was in fourth grade, and that made her experience a lot of sexual abuse.

Ashley had a troubled relationship with her father. She was also a victim of body-shaming in school. She was bullied quite a lot and was called “thunder thighs” due to her oversized thighs.

Ashley soon developed issues due to the abuse she faced in school. She was diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and dyslexia. By the time she was 14 years old, older men had begun making sexual advances toward her. Ashley’s mother became very cautious about these incidents. At one point, she even paid Ashley’s younger sisters to scream out “Mom! Mom!” every time they saw an older man approaching Ashley.

Although she resisted any sexual contact at a young age, Ashley became quite liberal about sex as she grew older. This caused her further psychological issues.

Education

Ashley attended Scott Middle School from 1999 to 2002 and Lincoln Southwest High School in Lincoln, Nebraska from 2002 to 2005.

Career

Ashley Graham was spotted by a talent agent at a local mall in Nebraska when she was 12 years old. The agent suggested that her mother send some of Ashley’s photos to a modeling agency. This was the beginning of Ashley’s modeling career. She appeared in numerous magazines and billboards before she graduated from ‘Lincoln Southwest High School’ in 2005. She soon arrived in New York to work as a full-time model.

In the early stages of her modeling career, she faced trouble landing jobs due to her unconventional body structure. For the first few years, she received offers to feature as a catalogue girl and was told that she would never be able to go beyond that. She soon got an offer from ‘Ford Models.’ Unfortunately, ‘Ford’ soon shut down their “plus-size” division soon after. This was a major blow to Ashley, and she then joined ‘IMG,’ another top modeling agency.

Soon, her career picked up pace. One of her first major breaks came her way in 2007, when she was profiled by Sally Singer of ‘Vogue’ magazine. In 2009, she appeared in the ‘Glamour’ editorial titled ‘These Bodies are Beautiful at Every Size.’ The campaign featured her alongside other popular plus-size models, such as Kate Dillon Levin, Amy Lemons, Jennie Runk, and Anansa Sims.

She made news again when she appeared in a controversial advertisement for ‘Lane Bryant,’ which was later banned in many countries. By the time it had been taken off from ‘YouTube,’ the commercial had been watched by more than 800 thousand viewers. The commercial was covered by leading American publications such as the ‘New York Post’ and ‘The Huffington Post.’

When the controversy went out of control, she made an appearance on ‘The Tonight Show with Jay Leno,’ to address the issue. The show made her a household name in the US and people appreciated her for being confident about her body, despite being body-shamed by trolls on social media. In 2010, she made an appearance in the editorial of ‘Bust’ magazine. She then became part of a number of ‘Levi’s’ and ‘Marina Rinaldi’ campaigns. Some of her most notable works have been for ‘Addition Elle,’ ‘Bloomingdale’s,’ ‘Nordstrom,’ and ‘Target.’ In 2012, she appeared on massive billboards for ‘Lane Bryant’ in New York.

In 2013, Ashley embarked into fashion designing briefly. She designed a lingerie chain for ‘Addition Elle,’ a Canada-based plus-size clothing retailer. The same year, she made an appearance on ‘Made,’ an ‘MTV’ reality show, which featured her as a coach for an aspiring plus-size model. In May 2014, she was featured in ‘Harper's Bazaar’ magazine’s pre-fall collection and beauty editorial. She then appeared on the cover of ‘Elle Quebec.’

In 2015, she appeared in an advertisement in the swimsuit issue of ‘Sports Illustrated’ magazine, as part of the ‘Swimsuit for All’ campaign. The next year, she appeared on the cover of the ‘Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition.’ She became the first plus-size model to have achieved the feat in the magazine’s history. The same year, she appeared in the music video for the song ‘Toothbrush’ by DNCE.

Ashley has appeared as a backstage host of the ‘Miss USA 2016’ and the ‘Miss Universe 2016’ pageants. She repeated the job the following year, too, for both the contests. In addition, she also happens to be the official judge of the talent-hunt show ‘America’s Next Top Model,’ which is broadcast on ‘VH1.’

In 2017, Ashley wrote her autobiography, ‘A New Model: What Confidence, Beauty, and Power Really Look Like.’ The memoir narrates her initial struggle as a plus-size model and tells how she overcame the obstacles with confidence.

Achievements

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  Ashley Graham is one of the most recognized plus-sized American models in the industry, gracing the covers of major fashion magazines. She made her way to the covers of a number of popular fashion magazines, such as ‘Vogue’ and ‘YM.’ By the end of 2012, Graham was awarded with the ‘Full Figured Fashion Week’s Model of the Year’ award. In 2013, she designed a lingerie line for ‘Addition Elle.’ In 2016, she became the first-ever plus-size model to appear on the cover of the ‘Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue.’

Works

More photos

• book

  • All the Stars Left Behind eBook: Ashley Graham: Kindle Store

    (Relocating to Arctic Norway would put a freeze on anyone’...)

    2017
  • A New Model: What Confidence, Beauty, and Power Really Look Like eBook: Ashley Graham, Rebecca Paley: Kindle Store

    (“Evocative.”  — The Cut One of the most outspoken voices ...)

    2017

Religion

She said about her believes: 'I come from a Christian background, and when I moved to New York, I got away from God. Then I realised that living here, you need something to keep you grounded or you'll go crazy.'

Views

The best fashion advice she’s ever been given is “beauty comes in all shapes and sizes, rock your confidence.”

Although she has walked in many runway shows, Graham thinks the hardest part is “staying focused and not looking at the audience” - a struggle when the audience is full of impressive people.

Graham is confident and believes she can pull of anything - in response to a question about one look she cannot pull off, she said: “Curvy girls can pull off any look, it is what we do.”

The supermodel is into conspiracy theories revolving around the existence of mermaids and aliens - and loves watching YouTube videos about them.

Quotations: "You can be sexy and feel confident in your skin, no matter what size you are."

"This confidence is not something that happens over night. I have been working on it for a long time. I look in the mirror and do affirmations: 'you are bold. You are brilliant. You are beautiful.' If my lower pooch is really popping out that day. I look at it and say, 'pooch, you are cute!"

"I remember thinking, 'if I don't love that woman that I look at in the mirror, I am never going to be successful.' That was the moment I had to start convincing myself to look in the mirror and start saying, 'I love you."

"As woman gain weight they start judging themselves. But who cares! Embrace what you have. Say, 'belly you might be poking out today, but I'm going to choose to love you and nurture you."

"There are some days I feel fat. I'm not convinced there's going to be a moment where every woman in the world wakes up and feels like a million dollars. So, What I want to do is give women the tools that will help when those moments come up. Sometimes it can be as easy as telling yourself that you are BEAUTIFUL."

"That's truly what my message is- finding self love within yourself and not comparing yourself to others- because there's no such things are perfection, because perfection doesn't exist."

"I love blocking people. I'm not afraid to block anybody."

"The fashion industry may persist to label me as plus size, but I like to think of it as my size."

"I think that no woman has to defend her body, and she should just live her truth. It should never be about the number size of her pants, and it should be about what you're doing in the world. What does her brain look like and not her hip size."

"As hard as it is, owning who you are and knowing what you want is the only sure path to affirmation... I want women to know they can get out of any situation if they return to their core source of strength: themselves."

"Sports Illustrated decided to have a curvy women not only in their magazine but on the cover of their magazine. Now, that means size diversity is here, and it's not a trend."

"I don't like to use the words like 'real women' honestly. I like to use the word 'woman.' And I say that because there are so many women out there whoa re naturally thin or are naturally curvy, and I think when we start putting a label on the type of woman, it gets misconstrued and starts to offend people."

"I tried every diet, from living on cabbage soup to fasting to weight watchers, and then came the frozen meals and the shakes. I realized that the more I took care of my body. eating what was good for me, then I felt happy and whole."

"I put myself out there, trying to prove that beauty is beyond size. It was risky, sure, but what I risked in terms of personal pride was nothing in comparison to what I was rewarded in terms of personal fulfillment."

"The biggest misconception is that the purpose of going to the gym is to change your body. We should be working out to be healthy."

"I just don't live my life in a world where I am not feeling my best, and feeling my best is feeling sexy."

"A lot of who I am is connected to my size, and I am so happy with who I am."

"There's something to be said about just being vulnerable. Every woman has gone through something in her life that has been an image issue, or it has been something where somebody told her she's not good enough. And every woman can relate to that."

"It doesn't matter what size your hips are when you measure them. It's about, do you feel good and healthy in those hips?"

"Too fat, too thin, too loud, too quiet- I was never going to fit that standards others created for me. Instead of complying, I protested."

"I think the word plus size is so divisible to women."

"Words have power. The things that you say to yourself as a parent- the things that you say maybe even just one time to your children- they take it, and they take it into their real world and into their life and beyond."

"I'm being my real raw self, and that's what I always preach anyway. What you see is what you get."

"I dated all the wrong men. I thought I could feel appreciated in my body through guys.

"People want to know that there's someone else out there that looks like them."

"There's no such thing as being perfect, and that doesn't just mean the perfect body."

"Sexy is a state of mind, and it can come in all shapes and sizes. It is different for every person."

"Do I sometimes wish I were thinner? God, in the old days, absolutely I did, but now I feel that to lose wight would be disloyal to myself."

"Does any woman really just come in and say I am a plus size woman? Maybe as a defense mechanism or maybe as a way to kind of cope with fitting into society but... I just think it's divisive."

Personality

The model is lactose intolerant so she avoids dairy - but she craves “mac and cheese, every single day of my life.”

She keeps her purses spotless and cleans them out every single night.

If Ashley had to choose one product to never live without, she would choose rose water.

Graham’s modelling icon is supermodel Cindy Crawford, whose Revlon campaigns she had taped to her wall when she was younger.

Physical Characteristics: Graham was diagnosed with ADD and dyslexia in childhood.

Ashley has a curvaceous and sexually attractive body. She is decently tall with the height of 5 feet 9 inches and weighs 91 kilos. This statistics is of a couple of years ago; as after he weight loss, she has not disclosed her actual weight. Her body is measured 42-33.5-46.5 inches. Both, her hair and eyes are brown.

She has two tattoos: one on her hip (Scorpio sign) and one on the back of her neck (a cross because God’s got her back).

Interests

• Of all the countries, Graham would most like to visit India.
  
  Although her career keeps her extremely busy, the model made time to binge-watch the Netflix series Stranger Things. If she could choose one show to get a reboot, it would be Sister, Sister.

• Sport & Clubs

  Rollerblading

• Music & Bands

  Shania Twain

Connections

Graham met her husband, Justin Ervin, a videographer, in a Christian church in 2009. The couple married in 2010.

Mother:

Linda Graham

Spouse:

Justin Ervin

Sister:

Abigail Graham

colleague:

Whitney Thompson

(born September 26, 1987)

She is an American fashion model and is the winner of the tenth cycle of America's Next Top Model.

References

• Maxim Magazine (April, 2016) Ashley Graham Cover
• Elle UK Magazine (November, 2017) Ashley Graham Cover
• SELF Magazine October 2016 Ashley Graham