Meet the supermodel who is about to make history for Sports Illustrated

Ashley Graham Sports Illustrated
Instagram/Sports Illustrated Swimsuit

A model from Nebraska made history last February when she appeared as the first truly plus-size model in an ad in Sports Illustrated's swimsuit edition.

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Now she's about to chart new territory.

Sports Illustrated recently announced on its Instagram page that Ashley Graham would be featured in this year's swimsuit edition — but not in an ad.

It's a milestone for curvy women and the modeling industry as a whole, but it's just par for the course for Graham.

She launched a plus-size line with the lingerie company Addition Elle at Nordstrom, tapping into a market that Victoria's Secret hasn't touched.

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Graham talked to Business Insider this past summer about the moves she's made in the modeling and lingerie businesses, and how she's working to help transform society's perceptions of plus-size women.

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Graham became a model out of sheer luck — and good looks.

Remember these little scooter things?! What are they called? And you can't tell me nothing about my white tube socks.. #tbt #shorthairdontcare #tomboy

A photo posted by A S H L E Y G R A H A M (@theashleygraham) on May 22, 2014 at 6:28am PDT


She recalled to Business Insider:

It was one of those stories that you've heard a million times. Where I was in a mall, I was 12 years old, and somebody came up to me and said, 'Hey — you wanna be a model?' And there happened to be a scout right there, and I look over and there's like a line of like 300 girls in this mall in Nebraska and I was like, uh ... sure!"

She credits her parents with helping her set things straight. "Thank God my dad [is] a businessman," she said.

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Graham moved to New York at 17.

#regram from @lcchan #backstage #isabeltoledo @lanebryant #actingafool

A photo posted by A S H L E Y G R A H A M (@theashleygraham) on Mar 22, 2014 at 6:40am PDT


"Of course I went through the struggles of learning how to be an adult," she said, "but it never affected my career because I was just very straightforward — straightforward with what I wanted and my dreams and my goals and all of that."

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She soon experienced her first major controversy.

lane bryant ashley graham
Lane Bryant/YouTube

"I was in the Lane Bryant commercial that was banned from television, which was so cool," she said.

The 2010 commercial wasn't allowed to air on ABC during "Dancing with the Stars" or on Fox during "American Idol," CBS News reported.

Lane Bryant accused the networks of banning the ads because of the plus-size women, especially considering the ubiquity of sexy Victoria's Secret ads, which could air at the same time.

She added:

It was a controversy [and] everybody thought, 'Oh ... this is terrible,' but honestly, I thought it was great because it was giving us a platform to be able to talk about body image and acceptance. And media isn't putting curvy women on ... newsstands and on television.

"That was the whole thing," she said, "they were offended by my curves and lingerie."

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So in November 2013, she launched a line with Addition Elle — largely because the plus-size market is pretty sparse — especially when it comes to sexy lingerie.

Ashley Graham addition elle
Graham in her Addition Elle campaign. Courtesy of Addition Elle

Women have petitioned in hopes of seeing Victoria's Secret sell larger sizes, but Ashley Graham went ahead and made her own sexy line.

"I felt like there was a huge gap in the market for sexy and supportive lingerie," she said.

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The line recently launched on Nordstrom.com and as of the fall, it was available in select stores.

Ashley Graham addition elle
Courtesy of Addition Elle

"This is a huge, huge, huge accomplishment," she said. "I'm so excited because now my girls in America — who are the majority of [my] fan base — can actually get their hands on some of the awesome sexy merchandise."

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Graham believes that it's not just lingerie that's tough for plus-size women to find.

Ashley Graham Addition Elle
Graham in her Addition Elle campaign. Courtesy of Addition Elle

She was blunt with us: "Shopping sucks for a curvy girl if you just don't know how to do it and especially if you don't know where to go."

"It's like, if you go into a T.J. Maxx or a Marshall's and you have to start hunting — that's how it feels for any type of curvy girl — it's just like a hunt," she said.

This mission-like approach to shopping is in part because retailers are facing some challenges when it comes to creating stylish clothing for plus-size women, of which there are notoriously few options.

Graham said:

The thing about plus-size women — curvy women — is we're not all shaped the same. We're not just straight up and down — we're hourglassed, we're pear-shaped, we're apple, we're big breast, small breast — so not just one plus-size retailer is going to be able to give you everything you want.

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She signed with IMG, which is monumental for a plus-size model.

ashley graham elle uk
Jason Hetherington/Elle UK

"That has been [an] insane-career builder as well," she told Business Insider, "because I now have an agency that reps the biggest supermodels in the world and they haven't categorized me [as plus-size], so [it's] huge!"

She spoke at a TED Talk in May, encouraging others to accept their bodies — flaws and all.

Ashley Graham TedTalk
TEDX Talks/YouTube

She has become an ambassador for promoting body positivity and self-acceptance.

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That said, she understands why retouching exists.

ashley graham elleuk
Jason Hetherington/Elle UK

She told Business Insider:

I think there's a fine line of going too far. And I am a girl who has talked about my cellulite. I've talked about, you know, the parts that jiggle, and although I love them, it's also really nice in a major campaign to not necessarily be distracted with some of those things — if you're gonna take out like one or two dimples. But don't change my face, don't reshape my body, don't — you know — don't change the color of my skin just to make me look like what you think the ideal is — but I think mild retouching is totally fine.

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She thinks there's a lot of subliminal messaging in the media.

ashley graham elle uk
Jason Hetherington/Elle UK

"The other day, I saw at a restaurant, it said: 'Get this skinny pasta,' skinny salad, or something, and it was like, you know, when was salad not skinny?" she told Business Insider.

She added:

Or ...'have flawless, ageless-looking skin,' and it's a 12-year-old doing a campaign for skin care. I think that ... it's not just about body [image] anymore — it's about age, it's about race, it's about how to look lighter, and it's sad, and it's terrible, but I think it's through not promoting curvy women on the cover of the magazines and putting them in hair and makeup campaigns and not really talking about it in the fashion industry [these problems exist].

"I think things are changing sloooooooowly," she said. "But I think there's a huge gap that we still need to conquer."

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But she did break some ground in her ad for SwimsuitsForAll in Sports Illustrated.

swimsuitsforall SI Ad ashley graham
Courtesy of swimsuitsforall

 She had some words for those who were upset that it was just an ad:

I thought it's really sad. We're making history either way, and I actually met with some of the Sports Illustrated people after everything had kind of calmed down a little bit and they told me ... 'We wouldn't have known our readers wanted a girl your size in the magazine unless we had put the ad in there.'

She called it "groundbreaking in so many different ways."

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She thinks it's not just women who want to see this — it's men, too.

ashley graham swimsuitsfor all
Courtesy of swimsuitsforall

"It's showcasing [what] American women are wanting — I think men, too," she said. "I think that not every man has the same taste in women."

She said some "want women that just have a little bit more meat on their bodies."

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But she's hesitant to use the word "real."

Ashley Graham plus sized model
YouTube/swimsuitsforall

"I'm really careful with the word 'real,'" she told Business Insider. "I'm not telling you, 'Don't say real,' but you know it's hard because ... there are a lot of thin women that are just naturally thin and what, that doesn't make them a real woman? So I'm careful with that."

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But her parents still keep her grounded, despite her growing success and appearances in many magazines and shoots.

🇬🇧#London with #MaMa was exactly what I needed! 👯 #twopeasinapod #appledoesntfallfarfromthetree #girlstrip

A photo posted by A S H L E Y G R A H A M (@theashleygraham) on Oct 12, 2014 at 12:38pm PDT


"My mom and dad just always really humbled [me]. You know, kept me grounded," she said.

She cited an example:

I would come home from a three-week trip in Paris or something and I would get back in Nebraska and [my dad] would be like, 'Hey, you gotta mow the lawn now!' I would be like 'What? You know I was just being fabulous in Paris, right?' And they were like, 'We kinda don't care at all.'

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And she has words for the naysayers.

ashley graham plus size model
YouTube/swimsuitsforall

"The main places I get negative comments are from Instagram," she said, making her ask, "Why are you even following me?"

But she said any conversation about the plus-size community was a good thing: "I don't look at it as a negative anymore. I just look at it as somebody's talking ... because 10 years ago we weren't. And ... I don't care if you call me a fat cow."

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Plus, she's out to defy the myth that plus-size women can't be healthy. She works out.


"The other thing I get is, 'You're promoting obesity!'" She said.

But she works out — she said she does classes and machines and that she's even started to lift weights.

"I want more definition like in my thighs and stuff, so you know I have body goals for myself as well, but I'm not trying to lose inches. I'm just trying to keep toned," she said.

"You can be healthy at every size," she said. "As long as you're getting off the couch and doing something."

She said that even though she had 47-inch hips and a 32-inch waist, "you can't see the abs because there's a layer of fat over them, but hey, whatever!"

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Ultimately, she aspires to help people gain confidence and stop seeing size and the ultimate determining factor when it comes to how people feel about themselves.

Ashley Graham with 4 GIRLS
Courtesy of 4 GIRLS

She said:

I really, truly believe beauty is beyond size. And I use that hashtag — 'sexy is a state of mind,' and your sexy is different from my sexy, but as long as you're finding that inner self-love, then ... that's what this is all about. That's really truly what my message is — finding self-love within yourself and not comparing yourself to others because there's no such thing as perfection, because perfection doesn't exist.

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