Model Ashley Graham has long been a pioneer within the body positivity movement, though the GLP-1 trend has arguably challenged the concept of fierce acceptance.
“It’s really disheartening,” Graham, 38, told Marie Claire in a profile published on Thursday, April 30. “There was a pendulum that swung that was so body acceptance, positivity [and] everybody be who they need to be. And now, it’s going back this whole opposite way that looks like a smack within the face to the ladies who’ve felt like they’ve had a voice.”
Semaglutides and GLP-1s — including Ozempic, Wegovy and Mounjaro — are commonly prescribed to adults who struggle with weight-related conditions. Many celebrities have since began using the controversial drugs to slim down, though doctors have cautioned against using the medication for casual weight reduction.
“It goes with the times — and GLP-1s are a time,” Graham acknowledged. “I do know that there are and there’s gonna still be women who’re considered plus-size perpetually. This drug isn’t going to wipe out a complete statistic of girls.”
For Graham, she plans to proceed constructing a “community” of body-positive women.
“There’s so many [plus size influencers and creators]. They’re in every single place with their sizes and their proportions and the way they give the impression of being and the way they’re relatable,” the supermodel mused to the outlet. “And to me, that’s the good part about all of this. Seeing that these girls, who were raised on social media at such a young age at the moment are coming in and so they have a platform to say to the younger generation, ‘Be yourself, be who you would like to be. If you’ve got cellulite, who cares?’”
As these Hollywood celebrities show of their words, actions and online posts, the body-positivity movement has officially entered the mainstream. Well-known activists have used social media as a tool to spread more messages of self-love to their fans. Mindy Kaling made a splash when she posted a series of photos of herself wearing different two-piece […]
Graham, for her part, can be still working to simply accept her own postpartum body. (Graham shares three sons along with her husband, Justin Ervin.)
“I’m living in a unique body and it’s been hard to get to know her,” she said of her post-baby figure. “I can’t say that I can look within the mirror and be like, ‘I really like you.’ It’s not that for me. It’s that, ‘Wow, I made some children.’”
She continued, “I used to be as fit as I might be in 2019 after I got pregnant. I’m still attempting to get to that, but I’ve needed to recover from it in my head that I’ll appear to be I did in my late 20s, early 30s. She’s gone. Let’s concentrate on the brand new girl. That has been just like the last 4 years of my conversation in my head.”