Ashley Graham has never been afraid to share her story of success, and, sometimes, lack thereof. During a Tedx Talk in 2015, Graham did not hold back in her story. The 27-year-old shared, "Back in Nebraska I was known as the fat model — the girl who was pretty for a big girl.... My body, like my confidence, has been picked apart, manipulated and controlled by others who didn't necessarily understand it."
It took Graham changing how she thought about herself and the modeling world's standards to break out and succeed. She continued, "I felt free once I realized I was never going to fit the narrow mold society wanted me to fit in.... The fashion industry might persist to label me as plus-sized, but I like to think of it as my-sized."
Graham has since done what she could to make a difference. As reported by Time, she co-founded ALDA, a coalition of plus-sized models, described as "a new collective of models that represents beauty without divisions, boundaries, and — most importantly — beauty that doesn't conform to body shape or size."
