Watch: Why Ashley Graham Says GLP-1 Trend Is “a Smack in the Face” to Body Positivity Movement
Ashley Graham is strutting into a conversation about weight loss drugs.
The supermodel—who has been a longtime body positive advocate—shared her candid thoughts on how weight loss injections have affected the movement.
“It’s really disheartening,” Ashley told Marie Claire in an interview published April 30. “There was a pendulum that swung that was so body acceptance, positivity [and] everybody be who they want to be.”
“And now,” she added, “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.”
Noting that like any trend, weight loss injections—including Ozempic, Mounjaro and Wegovy—will come and go, she shared how women’s bodies shouldn’t be treated the same.
“It goes with the times—and GLP-1s are a time,” Ashley explained. “I know that there are and there’s gonna still be women who are considered plus-size forever. This drug isn’t going to wipe out a whole statistic of women.”
Even amid the rising popularity of weight loss drugs, the 38-year-old shared why the body positivity movement is here to stay.
“There’s so many [plus size influencers and creators],” she explained. “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,” 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?’”
Photo by Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images
And that’s a lesson the runway star is trying to learn herself. After all, she’s still working towards loving her post-partum body after welcoming son Isaac, 6, as well as 4-year-old twins Malachi and Roman with husband Justin Ervin.
“I’m living in a different body and it’s been hard to get to know her,” Ashley noted. “I can’t say that I can look in the mirror and be like, ‘I love you.’ It’s not that for me. It’s that, ‘Wow, I made some children.’”
“I was as fit as I could be in 2019 when I got pregnant,” she added. “I’m still trying to get to that, but I’ve had to get over it in my head that I’ll look like I did in my late 20s, early 30s. She’s gone. Let’s focus on the new girl. That has been like the last four years of my conversation in my head.”
For more stars who have spoken out about body positivity, read on…
instagram.com/chrissyteigen
Instagram / Demi Lovato
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-keeping it all the way real about the power of a good glam squad
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-on the advice she’d give aspiring actors
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-on being annoyed that people are surprised by her confidence
Christopher Polk/E! Entertainment/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images
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-on why she refuses to diet
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Christopher Polk/E! Entertainment/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images
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-responding to chatter about her Super Bowl appearance
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