When Ashley Graham shows up, people take notice. Case in point: The model was one of the last to be cast for the 2016 SI Swimsuit Issue and, despite her rookie status, landed on the cover. The last time a rookie made such a debut was the 1998 cover with Heidi Klum. It’s fair to say that Graham’s casting was more of a history-making turn
“Being the first-ever size 14 model in the pages of Sports Illustrated, that’s going to be a much huger stepping stone than just being a rookie or just being in the pages,” Graham said at the time. “It’s a woman my size: A woman that has been told she was ‘fat’, ‘not good enough,’ ‘never going to be an editorial model,’ ‘never be in the pages of Sports Illustrated.’”
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Graham would be featured again in the magazine in 2017 and ’18. Today the 35-year-old mom shares three boys—Isaac, Roman and Malachi—with her her husband, cinematographer Justin Ervin, and has a massive social media footprint, with 19.5 million followers on Instagram. She has become a trailblazer for inclusivity in the fashion and modeling industries.
“And now I’m proving everybody who ever told me that wrong,” she said in 2016. “I think that’s just a statement for all the women out there who have felt ugly, who have felt fat, who have felt like they haven’t been represented. I’m representing them right now. It’s a huge encouragement to myself knowing that I’ve overcome so many different things and that these women can overcome it as well.”
Here are eight of our favorite photos from her first SI Swimsuit shoot in Turks & Caicos with photographer James Macari.
James Macari
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