Ashley Graham is fighting back against the rise in popularity of weight loss shots.
Graham, 38, admitted her work cultivating the body positivity sphere has been more challenging lately due to the rampant use of GLP-1’s on and off the runway.
“It’s really disheartening,” she told Marie Claire about beauty industry standards more predominately swaying toward skinny.
“There was a pendulum that swung that was so body acceptance, positivity, everybody be who they want to be. And now it’s going back this whole opposite way that feels like a smack in the face to the women who have felt like they’ve had a voice.”
Graham became synonymous with the body positivity movement more than a decade ago as one of the first visibly plus-size models to walk high-fashion runways, and earned covers on nearly every major magazine.
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She’s witnessed “more movement for plus-size women than some people give the whole industry credit for,” but still acknowledged the dangers of weight loss shots.
“It goes with the times — and GLP-1s are a time,” she said. “I know that there are and there’s gonna still be women who are considered plus size forever.”
The mother of three added, “This drug isn’t going to wipe out a whole statistic of women.”
Graham emphasized that her work in the body positivity movement feels more crucial than ever, especially as trends begin to favor slimmer body types again.
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“Why would I stop now and why would I get angry about the work I’ve done?,” Graham questioned. “I put my head down and I focus on the women we’ve built the community with.
“There’s so many [plus size influencers and creators],” Graham continued. “They’re all over the place with their sizes and their proportions and how they look and how they’re relatable. And to me, that’s the coolest part about all of this.”
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She added, “Seeing that these girls, who were raised on social media at such a young age are now coming in and they have a platform to say to the younger generation, ‘Be yourself, be who you want to be. If you have cellulite, who cares?'”
Despite the challenges, she knows the value of staying true to her message.
“It’s incredibly important to continue to advocate for women of all shapes, all sizes, and all backgrounds to have clothes that fit … to have people who don’t have confidence, have confidence in themselves,” Graham said of her latest plus-size JCPenney collaboration.
“I also don’t think that my community is just curvy women. I think it’s all kinds of women because, really, confidence at the end of the day, it doesn’t discriminate.”
