Ashley Graham Quotes

My visibility may have gotten Hollywood to redefine what's attractive.

'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 there are a lot of books about thin, attractive people having thin, attractive people's problems. I'm better set up to tell a different story.

Along with people who pretty themselves for the camera, the unattractive and the disaffected have been assigned their beauty.

I'm so proud to be a real woman, a size 14 woman on the cover of a magazine like 'Ralph.' Women's publications rarely put size 14 women on the cover, let alone men's, so I'm really honoured and proud to be on the cover and representing curvy, sexy women out there.

Heartless retouching should not be the chosen tool to represent women in the beginning of this century.

Fighting the ageing process just doesn't work. I think that actresses, ultimately, are responsible for the faces we give to women.

I like to refer to myself as 'The George Clooney of the Lane Bryant set.'

Handsome, thin, sophisticated men often fall madly in love with larger women, we just never see it on TV.

Fashion is quite inclusive and good at embracing different things and different forms of beauty. It's a very liberal industry. You can be yourself. Just not overweight.

I didn't even know I was considered plus-size until I was on the red carpet here in L.A. one day and a lady said, 'How do you feel about being a plus-sized girl in Hollywood?' I was like, 'What's she talking about?'

We need to be more supportive with everything. With body images, especially with women, showing that all sizes are beautiful. And I'm talking about in magazines, advertisement in regard to what's sexy and what's not sexy. We all need to be a little more supportive of each other.

I'm 5'3'', and not often you get to see that in a magazine. I think that what is so cool about 'Sports Illustrated' is it's all different body shapes, all difference sizes. You have actresses, sports figures, musicians, so it's all about skin deep beauty sort of radiating to the outside, and that's what's so special.

To me, beauty is inclusion - every size, every color - that's the world I live in.

One cabbie chastened me by saying that the fashion industry was doing harm to young people, who are trying to live up to an unrealistic ideal. It prompted me to make body image and diversity key issues on 'The Business of Fashion.'

For so long, I have been an outsider because of my size. And I think that fashion has always, in some way, catered to celebrities or to a thinner idealistic model.

Sierra' is me being a plus-size woman.

It has to be something people prioritize - it should be the number-one priority: representing all types of beauty, all types of shapes and sizes.

Growing up, I didn't really watch the Victoria's Secret fashion show too much. I really just saw folks who weren't real to me, so it didn't really interest me.

Does any woman really just come in and say, 'I'm a plus-size woman?' Maybe as a defense mechanism or maybe as a way to kind of cope with fitting into society but... I just think it's divisive.

The people I look up to most are actresses such as Kate Winslet and Amy Schumer, who have never been size zero and are judged on their bodies of work, not their bodies.

Beauty doesn't have to be confined to one tiny singular tiny frame and I've always really enjoyed standing up for women and representing different shapes within the industry.

It's important to me, no matter what size I am or weight I am, to feel beautiful. Even at my biggest I was rocking body con dresses and you couldn't tell me twice. That's what I think Good American is. It's about women of individuality and diversity, but also about being comfortable in yourself. That's what we're trying to promote. It's not about fitting into a size two and that's what makes you beautiful. I just want people to be healthy and love who they are and be in control of your life. But that doesn't mean you have to be a size six.

I think we all waste a lot of time measuring ourselves up against impossible standards in lots of ways. We need to learn a few things, one of which being that physical beauty comes in all shapes and sizes, including a lot that the women's magazines have never even thought of.

I've had my body manipulated so many different times for so many different reasons, whether it's paparazzi photographers or for film posters. The topless Interview shoot was one of the ones where I said: 'OK, I'm fine doing the topless shot so long as you don't make them any bigger or retouch.' Because it does feel important to say it really doesn't matter what shape you are. I think women's bodies are a battleground, and photography is partly to blame. Our society is so photographic now, it becomes more difficult to see all of those different varieties of shape.