My fans are incredible. Don't you dare talk bad about me on my Instagram, because my fans will come out, and they will eat you alive.
— Ashley Graham
I hit the beauty jackpot, I get it, but that's not enough: you've got to have more to have longevity in this business. It's always been, 'OK, so what can I do now?'
People will run up to me with tears in their eyes and say, 'You're Ashley Graham?' and I match their enthusiasm and respond, 'Yes, I am!' and all they say is, 'Thank you so much.'
I remember being told by my very first photographer that if I lost weight, and I was a skinny model, it would do wonders for my career. My mum got really defensive - 'I don't think we will be doing that, thank you so much, goodbye.'
'Sexy' is a state of mind, and it can come in all shapes and sizes. It is different for every person.
Growing up, I had my mom to look up to; J. Lo and Marilyn Monroe were notable curvy women. But I didn't have anyone with cellulite or back fat telling me they didn't care.
My mom's parents were farmers, so every summer, my sisters and I would help out, hauling pipe and pulling maggots off the corn. We hated it, but it taught me the meaning of good hard work.
Curvy girls can pull off any look - it's what we do.
I think that when you use the word 'plus-size,' you're putting all these women in a category: 'You don't eat well.' 'You don't work out.' 'You could care less about your body.' 'You're insecure.' 'You have no confidence.'
As women 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.'
I dated all the wrong men. I thought I could feel appreciated in my body through guys.
I always say, 'Be anxious for nothing,' because if this is my social media, if this is a platform for me to really get the word out and get my brand out, then why am I gonna be anxious about it?
My father was a master of the cutting insult.
'Sports Illustrated' decided to have curvy women not only in their magazine but on the cover of their magazine. Now, that means size diversity is here, and it's real, and it's not a trend.
I think the word 'plus-sized' is so divisive to women.
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'm giving curvy women a seat at a table that we've never been invited to before - a table with high-end fashion people who have never considered us beautiful.
A lot of who I am is connected to my size, and I am so happy with who I am.
For 10 years, I'd been told I was always going to be a catalogue girl, never a cover girl. Well, I got with IMG and did five covers in a year, boom, boom, boom.
I've always been a girl's girl, and I've always enjoyed my girl friends' relationships, so I want the girls who follow me to feel like we're besties.
I remember thinking, 'If I don't love the 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.'
There's no such thing as being perfect, and that doesn't just mean the perfect body.
What better time to write a memoir than the big 3-0?
A lot of bodybuilders have high BMIs. It's not an indication of your overall health. Like, why put more standards on women saying there's a maximum BMI? I just think we need to be healthy, and I am.
People would do the sound of a truck backing up - beeeep, beeeep - as I was sitting down.
I've had agents tell me, 'You're not gonna be on the cover of anything; you're a catalog girl.' I've had clients tell me, 'You're too fat, and we can't book you any more because you don't fit into the jeans.'
There are reasons to set boundaries for yourself, but there are also reasons to keep doors open.
I had to realize that if I didn't really love who I was, and if I couldn't appreciate this - my body - as my moneymaker, then I wasn't going to make any money.
I'm being my real raw self, and that's what I always preach anyway. What you see is what you get.
I really believe that parents need to know they are shaping the future of their children.
Curvy models are becoming more and more vocal about the isolating nature of the term 'plus-size.' We are calling ourselves what we want to be called - women, with shapes that are our own.
The really hard moment was when my dad said, 'Honey, if an agent is telling you to lose weight, then maybe you should lose weight.' I was 15, standing in our living room, having a moment I will never forget. I never had a parent tell me to lose weight, and it hurt.
Too fat, too thin, too loud, too quiet - I was never going to fit the standards others created for me. Instead of complying, I protested.
Do I sometimes wish I were thinner? God, in the old days, absolutely I did, but now I feel that to lose weight would be disloyal to myself.
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.
Social media has truly helped my career because it has given models a voice. And a voice is something that we want to see a change in the industry.
I just don't live my life in a world where I am not feeling my best, and feeling my best is feeling sexy.
People want to know that there's someone else out there that looks like them.
To not see black or Latina women as famous in my industry is crazy! I have to talk about it.
My theory is that big underwear makes big girls look bigger.
People called me 'cottage cheese thighs' all through school.
I'm a woman of faith. And I really believe that if I say, 'God, this is what I want,' He says, 'I'll give you your desires, as long as they line up with My will.'
I'm trying to change how women think about themselves.
I always felt second best. I was never the prettiest, never the skinniest, never the fastest in my sports. Never the smartest, because I have dyslexia. Then, all of a sudden, people were like, 'You're gorgeous.' And I was like, 'What?'
One thing my mother did is that she never looked in the mirror and said, 'I'm so fat,'or 'I'm so ugly. I need to go on a diet.' Projecting that onto yourself is only going to make your daughter or son think that of themselves. Because they're a product of you.
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.
The fashion industry may persist to label me as 'plus-size,' but I like to think of it as 'my 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.
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.
