Ashley Graham

Background

Ashley Graham was born in Lincoln, Nebraska. She was raised with her two younger sisters, and was regularly bullied at school because of her large thighs. Shortly after completing elementary school, Graham was diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (A.D.H.D.), but managed to overcome this and several other personal obstacles during her youth.

Graham was discovered by a talent agent when she was 12 years old in a Nebraska mall. Before graduating from Lincoln Southwest High School in 2005, she was featured in various magazines and billboards. Her unusual physical structure made it difficult for her to find work at the beginning of her modeling career. Graham received offers to appear as a catalog girl for several years, but was told she would never be able to advance beyond simple projects. Fortunately, she was able to prove session casters wrong, and her career progressed quickly. In 2007, she was interviewed by Sally Singer of “Vogue” magazine, which gave her one of her first major breaks. She was then featured in “Glamour” magazine’s “These Bodies Are Beautiful at Every Size” in 2009. Making the headlines once more, Graham starred in a controversial Lane Bryant ad that was ultimately banned in numerous countries; the commercial had received over 800,000 views by the time it was removed from YouTube. She even appeared on “The Tonight Show” with Jay Leno to address the topic when it spiraled out of control. Graham soon rose to prominence and is one of the most widely known plus-size models today.

Graham also briefly dabbled in fashion design in 2013. She created a lingerie line for Addition Elle, a plus-size clothes company based in Canada, and then appeared in “Made,” an M.T.V. reality show, the same year, as a mentor for an aspiring plus-size model. She was featured in a swimsuit issue of “Sports Illustrated” magazine in 2015 as part of the Swimsuit for All campaign, and on the cover of the “Sports Illustrated” Swimsuit Issue the following year. Graham was the first plus-size model in the magazine’s history to accomplish the feat. Adding to her accomplishments, she has hosted the “Miss USA 2016” and “Miss Universe 2016” pageants backstage. In addition, she has served as a judge on VH1’s talent show “America’s Next Top Model.” Her autobiography, “A New Model: What Confidence, Beauty, and Power Really Look Like,” was published in 2017. The book details her early struggles as a plus-size model and how she overcame them with self-assurance.

Graham met videographer Justin Ervin in church in the early years of the new Millenium. The two dated for a few years before marrying in 2010, and then welcomed their first son on January 18, 2020. She went on to give birth to twin boys, Roman and Malachi, in January 2022.