Graham Ashley - A new model: what confidence, beauty, and power really look like

First and foremost, thank you to my mother. Mom, youve always been the most important woman in my life. Thank you for instilling values in me; for making me feel beautiful, confident, and brave; and for loving me unconditionally. I wouldnt be where I am today without your help and your direction since the early days of my career. Thank you to my entire family, who have supported me since day one. To my younger sisters, thank you for giving me the opportunity to be your role model.

To my agent, Mina White, one of the strongest, most hardworking women I know: I admire your drive and can never thank you enough for believing in me, elevating my career to new heights, and making possible what I thought was impossible. Youre a superwoman! To Ivan Bart: Your ideas that spark change in the fashion and modeling industries and your passion for celebrating diversity inspire me every day. Ill forever be proud to be an IMG star.

To my teams of phenomenal women at WME and Skai Blue MediaNancy Josephson, Suzanne Lyon, Andy McNicol, Rakia Reynolds, and Christanna Ciabattoni: Thank you for supporting me day in and day out, and for using your creative minds to tell my story and amplify my mission.

Thanks to Rachel Aschalew, my ride-or-die, my big sister, and the best friend a girl could ask for. And to my right-hand woman, Darsell Obregon, Id be lost without you.

To Carrie Thornton: Your vision made this book possible, and your creativity made it work. Thanks to Rebecca Paley, the best collaborator any author could hope for. Gratitude to all the folks at Dey Street Books, including Lynn Grady, Sean Newcott, Michael Barrs, Heidi Richter, Ploy Siripant, Stephanie Vallejo, and Nyamekye Waliyaya, for putting all the pieces together and getting this book out into the world! Thank you to Cass Bird and my glam squad for the perfect book cover.

To the teams at Addition Elle, swimsuitsforall, Dressbarn, Marina Rinaldi, and Lane Bryant, and to the editors, journalists, photographers, and bloggers whove embraced the body positive movement: Thank you all for supporting my career. Together lets break down more barriers and show everyone that size is just a number... a sexy number!

To my husband, Justin Ervin. God blessed me with my soulmateyou are my everything and you truly complete me. Thank you for igniting my fire, for pushing me to explore opportunities that were once unimaginable, for loving me with your entire heart, and most of all, for just being you.

And last but certainly not least, thank you to my fans. In a world where not every curvy girl has a friend to relate to, to share clothes with, to talk to about her body insecuritiesIm here for you, and youre here for me. Remember to speak life into your body, because confidence is always beautiful. Never let your body hold you back. Beauty is beyond size!

Ashley Graham is a model, designer, and body activist. She began her career at the age of twelve, when she was discovered in a mall in her hometown of Lincoln, Nebraska. Ashley has worked in numerous areas of the fashion industry, including editorial, catalog, runway, commercial, television, and film. In February 2016 she was selected as a Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Rookie and also landed one of three covers for the magazine, making her the first size 14 model to ever be featured on the cover. A leader for the body positive movement, Ashley has been featured on the covers of Vogue , Vogue UK , Cosmopolitan , SELF , Maxim , and many more. In November 2016 Glamour named her Woman of the Year, while Mattel simultaneously created a one-of-a-kind Barbie in her likeness. She has collaborated with Canadian brand Addition Elle on her own line of seductive, size-conscious lingerie and recently launched Beyond by Ashley Graham, an exclusive dress collection in collaboration with Dressbarn. Additionally, she works with swimsuitsforall, designing and modeling an annual swimsuit collection.

Ashley is a sought-after television personality, with guest hosting spots on numerous national talk shows and as a judge on VH1s Americas Next Top Model . She speaks regularly at national conferences, high schools, and girls groups about body image, self-acceptance, and female empowerment.

She lives in Brooklyn with her husband.

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Fame, Fortune,
Self-Love

You are good enough to make whatever you want to achieve possible. You just need to find your talent and passionthen put a heck of a lot of work into it.

One of the questions I get all the time from young women is, How do I become a model?

I never answer that question. There are plenty of agents, books, and other sources better equipped to give professional advice than me. Instead I pose my own question.

Let me ask you this: Do you want to become a model because its going to make you feel pretty, earn a lot of money, or become famous?

And here comes the hard truth.

Because, if so, none of that is going to happen.

I know that must seem like a real load of BS coming from me, or even cruel. Ive been lucky, because becoming a model has given me all those things and more than Ive ever imagined. But fame, in my case and in pretty much all cases, is pure luck (not to mention a ton of hard work). It just is. If there were a formula to it, a lot more people would be famous. Most models who work consistently do so in complete obscurity, like any other job. It is a select few who become household names in the modeling world. A very select few.

And the money thing? You can definitely make a lot of moneyif youre the it girl, which is as rare as making it as an actress or pop musician. (If you are the it girl, youd better know how to invest your money, because you wont be the it girl for longmore on that later.) The rates for magazine work and fashion shows are much less than people imagine, and a lot of a models time is taken up not with paying jobs but with going from casting to casting, where the competition is so fierce that shes much more likely to be rejected than hired.

Last up: the pretty thing. No matter how many hairstylists, makeup artists, fashion stylists, and Photoshop experts you employ, being a model makes you feel seriously ugly. Because your appearance is your profession, its also fair game for criticism. When youre a model, people pick apart and manipulate every single aspect of your exterior. No part of you is off limits.

I give that hard-truth talk to all aspiring models, because although I want them to know what they are getting into, I understand the drive behind the desire.

Before I even turned pretty, I sought out the limelight. Heck, before I could eat solid food I was an attention hog, according to my mother. Apparently, I was colorful (my moms word) even as an infant. When she would lay me on a blanket on the floor, I would lift up my head and look around the room with presence (again, my mom). I always looked people in the eye, even as a two-year-old when we went to Disney World and I decided to say hi to everyone I passed. By three years old, I took to standing behind the pulpit in church to give a sermon to an empty sanctuary. Yeah, I was very comfortable with myself. And no stage was too small for me. I also used the fireplace hearth as a podium for my greatness.