The body activist and model Ashely Graham graces the cover of the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue, making her the first-ever size-16 plus-size model to do so.
Last year, Graham made headlines for appearing in advertisement in the issue.
“I thought Sports Illustrated was taking a risk by putting a girl my size in the pages, but putting me on the cover? They aren’t just breaking barriers; they are the standard now. This is beyond epic.” said Graham in an interview with People Magazine.
There has been slew of body positivity that has come out in the last couple years, with size-22 model Tess Holliday’s #EffYourBeautyStandards campaign, to plus size model Erica Jean Schenk being featured on the cover of Women’s Running.
It’s exciting to see how far the media will go, showing models of all types. It’s about time to represent the variation of body sizes and why we should love them all. ALL bodies are beautiful.