"When I was 17 or 18 years old,” says model Ashley Graham, “I was doing a group shot for this really big campaign, and one girl, who was probably a size 2 or 4, said to me, ‘Did you actually get paid for this job?’ I remember thinking, She’s asking me that because I’m fat.” Graham, now 29, still runs into that model (whom, taking the high road, she refuses to name). “She’s always friendly and nice,” says Graham. “I think she forgot she said it. But it’s one of those things I’ll never forget.”
A decade later Graham has proved not only that she can and should get paid but also that she can—and will—change the whole damn world. This February she became the first size-16 model ever to land the cover of Sports Illustrated’s Swimsuit Issue, bringing size acceptance into the mainstream with just one (fabulous) photo. To Graham, who didn’t truly believe she’d be on the cover until the issue was in her hands, this triumph “wasn’t just for curvy girls. It was for every woman. Most of us have not been told, ‘If you have cellulite and your thighs rub together, who cares?’”
Graham didn’t always feel so confident. When she moved to New York City after high school to model full-time, she nearly gave up after a summer of being rejected. “I called my mom and she said, ‘You’re there for a reason. Your body is there to change the lives of people,’” says Graham. But first her mother reminded her she had to change her own attitude: “She said, ‘You are the one who’s looking in the mirror every day. You have to speak to yourself.’” Graham created a new plan and eventually a vision board of everything she hoped to achieve (yes, that SI cover was on it). One key tool: social media. She saw emerging digital platforms as a way to directly connect with women, no “permission” from casting directors or model agents required. She began posting selfies, behind-the-scenes snaps at fashion shoots, and more, many hashtagged the same way: #beautybeyondsize. Women responded (“They were tired of seeing one form of beauty for so long,” she says), and her fan base quickly grew—today she has more than 2.6 million followers on Instagram, Snapchat, and Twitter. She also started appearing in mainstream ads, for companies like Levi’s and Calvin Klein. Suddenly she had a platform, and she decided to use it to let women of all sizes know they are beautiful.
Her audience fell in love with the gorgeous, gregarious woman with the boundless confidence (when society tells her she’s not up to par, says Graham, “I kind of just give my middle finger to it, like, ‘Guess what? I’m really hot’”). And her followers let her know how much it helps to have her as a champion. “Every day I get at least 20 messages,” she says. “A woman who was bulimic for six years said she stopped throwing up after she watched my TED Talk.” She kicked off that presentation (also once on her vision board) by looking into a full-length mirror onstage and having a friendly chat with her body parts: “Back fat, I see you popping over my bra today. But that’s all right. I’m gonna choose to love you.” She’s impossible to resist. “Supermodels were once defined by drama,” says Eva Chen, head of fashion partnerships at Instagram. “Ashley is the epitome of a modern supermodel—stunning, certainly, but also self-aware, cognizant of the world around her, and engaged in a constant conversation with her millions of fans.”
Graham plans to keep pushing for change on behalf of all the women who believe in size diversity and expect the fashion business to get on board. She’s campaigning for “curvy girls”—her term of choice—to be included in more major runway shows; 16 plus-size models walked the shows at New York Fashion Week this fall, a record, and she’d like to see that number climb (she personally has her sights set on Givenchy and Dolce & Gabbana). Graham has also created multiple clothing lines (for lingerie and swimsuits, and a dress collection, sizes 4 to 24, for Dress Barn). “I’m really trying to make a change in the industry,” she says. “I’m trying to have more quality clothing for curvy women. A lot of it [isn’t available] in my size.”
Next up, Graham will debut as a judge on America’s Top Model. And now both she and her husband, cinematographer Justin Ervin, keep vision boards beside their bed. On hers: a beauty campaign, a book, and maybe a talk show. But her deepest wish is for girls. “I hope they look in the mirror and say, ‘I am beautiful,’” she says. “When you do that, it’s a whole other ball game—you start to understand that your words have power.”
Her Words to Live By:“Be your own woman. Be your own kind of role model. And remember that the women around you are women you can lift up. You can change their lives.”