Ashley Graham Expresses Disdain For The Phrase “Real Woman” When Describing Her Figure
Model Ashley Graham has been fighting to change the perception of women’s bodies for quite some time now and recently she spoke to ELLE 2 about being the new face of NYDJ
That’s great! NYDJ has recently gone through a rebranding. What were you surprised to learn about who the brand is today?
I was surprised to learn how young and cool they actually were. I actually came on and was like, ‘Okay, where’s the ripped jeans? Where’s the studded coolness?’ And they pulled it all out for me. I didn’t feel like I was out of my age bracket modeling, I didn’t feel like I looked older in the jeans. I feel like I could tell my 21-year-old sister that she would look just as hot as I would in them.
I feel like often times plus-size women say they have trouble finding denim. What—
Oh, it sucks. It’s terrible. First of all, no woman likes to go shopping for denim, and if you’ve got hips, or a butt, or a stomach it’s never never easy. NYDJ has a little bit of stretch in all the denim, and they run big, so you can go down a size. That just makes you feel better, right? And the fit, it’s not like these low-rise, that’s not realistic for me. I like mid-rise or high-rise, and they’re all about the fit.
Ashley also spoke about her hatred for the phrase “real women”…
You’ve made huge strides in the body image and positive body image sector. How does it feel to be tapped for a campaign like this after all you’ve done?
It feels good. It feels like it’s supposed to happen. It feels like, ‘alright, we’re making progress.’ And there are very large companies like NYDJ who are taking notice of women with curves, and not only making clothes for them, but including them in the campaign, because that’s exactly what the average woman wants to see. She wants to see herself in a campaign. She wants to see what she’s going to look like in the jeans, and also be celebrated throughout all of this. So, I think it’s amazing, yet it’s supposed to be happening.
It’s nice to see “real women,” I guess you could say, in campaigns like these.
You know, I don’t like to use the words “real women,” honestly. I like to use the word woman. And I say that because there are so many women out there who are naturally thin, or are naturally curvy, and I think when we start putting a label on the type of woman it gets misconstrued and starts to offend people. At the end of the day we just all want to be known as women or models or actresses or whatever.
Images via Instagram
Flip it over to peep more photos of Ashley flexing her thunder thighs
