Ashley Graham Sends Message To Those Struggling With Their Bodies This Summer
Ashley Graham knows that for some people, showing more skin in the summer isn’t easy. But as temperatures rise, she wants her followers to embrace their bodies.
“As the weather gets warmer, i know a lot of people struggle with wearing less clothes and showing more skin. i hope these photos i’ve been tagged in of so many beautiful bodies motivates you to love the skin you’re in,” the model wrote Monday on Instagram alongside a carousel of photos featuring people of different body types and skin tones, including a picture of herself wearing only a necklace.
“Believe me when i say your body is beautiful, and i know it’s easy to tell yourself the lie that you’re not good enough, thin enough, sexy enough, ‘flawless’ enough to wear a tank top or a swimsuit,” Graham added.
“But it’s hot out there and so are you,” the 33-year-old continued. “Don’t let your mind stop you from enjoying your life to the fullest (and remember to say ‘i love you’ to yourself every day)!”
Graham has been a fierce advocate for body positivity over the years. She has also been open and candid about challenges she’s faced with her own body, including when she struggled with her “new mom bod” while pregnant with her son, Isaac.
“When I got pregnant, I had to reimagine my relationship with my body with this creature inside me taking over. I was gaining weight so rapidly,” she told actor Kristen Bell for Elle magazine’s August 2020 issue. “Then, to get stretch marks on my stomach, that to me was like, ‘Oh my gosh. I can’t believe this happened.’”
“At first it felt devastating,” Graham said. “And then when I met Isaac, I said, ‘No, this is exactly what every woman has talked about for ages. This is not just a battle wound. This is something that has changed my life forever, and I’m going to celebrate my new body.’”
The entertainer told Porter magazine earlier this year that she’s excited to eventually see the day when people “don’t have to explain our bodies at all.” Until then, Graham said she’s going to continue using her voice to speak up about the beauty of all bodies.
“I wish that, when I was younger, there had been someone as outspoken as I was,” Graham told Porter. ”[Someone] who was as fearless with their cellulite and back fat, so I could know that this was normal; this was what a body looks like.”
This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.
