Ashley Graham Talks Confidence in Fast Company's Creative Conversation

Images: top Photo by John Jackson on Unsplash; bottom Kim Kardashian joining Ashley Graham on her ‘Pretty Big Deal’ podcast, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license.

In the case of Ashley Graham, confidence is her brand. In the latest episode of Fast Company’s podcast Creative Conversation, the body-positive model, entrepreneur and host of her own podcast ‘Pretty Big Deal’, explains that “it took her completely losing her confidence to build it back up to where it is now.”

“There were a lot of things, just in my confidence, that I wouldn’t have had to deal with so soon if it weren’t for modeling,” says Graham, who began her career at age 12. “Like, I’m too fat to get a job. Or I’m not pretty enough to book that cover. Or you’re just not an interesting enough person, period. So as much confidence as the industry and the business has given me, it started off with a lack of it that I wasn’t prepared for. And a label shoved into a box of just being called plus-size, nothing more, nothing less.”

In this episode of Creative Conversation, Graham shares how she learned to become her biggest advocate and is devoted to figuring out what she wants to say “now that she’s found her voice”.

Ashley Graham recently dropped into AOC via Vogue Italia, dressed in Fendi and bringing a new curvy woman crew with her that included Alva Claire, Jill Kortleve and Paloma Elsesser.

So comfortable is Ashley Graham in her own skin, that she shared on her Instagram this image of her being “taped in place” for the Ethan James Green, Vogue Italia photoshoot.

Priceless and Precious!