Ashley Graham Speaks on the Remarkable Impact She’s Made in the Modeling Industry

The three-time SI Swimsuit model opened up about inspiring women to embrace their bodies.

Ashley Graham.Steve Granitz/Getty Images

It’s no secret that Ashley Graham has influenced the modeling industry for the better over the course of her career. The 2016 SI Swimsuit Issue cover model recently opened up to Models.com about the impact her body positivity has had on women in the real world.

Graham, who also appeared on the cover of Vogue in 2020, shared that the industry has largely changed since she started modeling 23 years ago. She stated that over the years, she’s been “preaching from the rooftops” that her body is not a fashion trend.

“I think it dawns on me the impact I’ve made in the industry when I talk to women who are either in tears or excited or just enamored of the fact that like, they just say, ‘I wish somebody looked like you when I was younger,’ or ‘Thank you for helping me through an eating disorder or a very low time in my life when you posted that photo of, you know, the side of your body with rolls or grabbing your stomach.’”

While Graham admitted that “a cover is cool” and walking a runway is “amazing,” she’s most most proud of those types of personal interactions with other women.

“These little moments I feel like that are little in my life that I’ve shared, knowing that that actually like encouraged somebody in their daily life to just be O.K. with themselves, I mean that’s when it really hits me,” Graham gushed.

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