Ashley Graham Talks Embracing Her Cellulite As She Strips Down In New Photos

Ashley Graham has been teaching us to embrace our perceived body flaws for as long as we can remember and she’s not slowing down.

The body positive model was interviewed by Tracee Ellis Ross for V Magazine and she talked once more about learning to be comfortable in her skin and seeing her cellulites as beautiful as she stripped down to nothing for a couple of powerfully sexy black and white images.

In the interview, she tells Tracee that learning to be comfortable in her skin wasn’t something that happened in a moment but was rather a result of several experiences. “It would be so much easier to be like, “This is the date, time, and experience I had,” but there really isn’t one. It was more about experiences in my life of devaluing the fact that I was an average, normal girl living in the city. But being told, “You’re fat,” “You’re ugly” or “You’re just not good enough,” and trying to live in these model standards, that was my normal. I think I hit bottom around 18. I was disgusted with myself and told my mom I was coming home. And she told me, “No, you’re not, because you told me that this was what you wanted and I know you’re supposed to do this. It doesn’t matter what you think about your body, because your body is supposed to change somebody’s life.” To this day that sticks with me because I’m here today and I feel that it’s okay to have cellulite.”

She went on to talk about how her mother taught her cellulites are natural and nothing to freak out about. “I remember my first signs of cellulite, in middle school. I remember telling my mom, “Isn’t it disgusting? It’s so ugly.” She pulled her pants down and said, “Look, I have it, too.” And I was like, “Gasp!” She looked at me, then at it, and just rolled her eyes. She didn’t tell me that it’s beautiful or ugly. She just made it a nonissue. It doesn’t define my worth. If women like you and me continue to preach that, then I feel like younger girls are going to grasp it and they’re going to be like, “Who cares!””

Read the full interview here.