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This past Sunday, Her Campus Clemson had the awesome opportunity to host a live watch party for an exclusive interview with Ashley Graham and New York Times through their Get With The Times event. First off, a huge thank you to everyone who came and made this watch party a success! During this stream, Ashley got real with us and shared some of her insecurities (she has dyslexia!), secrets to success, how she deals with rejection and even some of the harsh words her managers have told her over the years. And in case you couldn’t make it, here’s the rundown of everything we learned from this superwoman!
If you don’t get what you want, keep it moving
When asked how she deals with rejection and how it has shaped her (a video question that I sent in and she answered!), Ashley told us a story about her auditioning for the cover of Italian Vogue. It was between her and three other curvy, brunette models. And she didn’t get the cover. She told us about being heartbroken and frantically wondering if this meant that the other model’s career was going to take off and hers wasn’t. But then she realized that all that decision meant was that that specific opportunity wasn’t meant for her. Her advice for us is to keep moving and focus on your next opportunity.
Bold, Brilliant, and Beautiful
Ashley has a mantra that she repeats to herself every day that she created while trying to make it on her own in NYC: “I am Bold. I am Brilliant. I am Beautiful. I love you.” She says it’s helped her get through those days where everything seems hopeless and suggests we each create our own mantra and live it out.
Workout, Meditate, and Pray
The daily routine of a supermodel CEO superstar is actually a bit more normal than anyone would think. Ashley shared that she loves to work out, meditate and pray as her way of showing self-care. She admitted that she loves the stereotypical face mask, bath, and Netflix self-care day just as much as the next gal, but taking care of your physical and mental health is the long-term self-care that we all need.
Tell companies what you think
One of Ashley’s (many) positions is that of CEO of her own swim and lingerie line, so she has experience with understanding how consumers influence companies. Her biggest piece of advice to us when it comes to making changes in the beauty and fashion industry that we want to see is to let companies know what we want. This means commenting on their Insta posts, Tweeting them, and using the power of social media to make it so they can’t ignore what the customer wants. Because, ultimately, our desires end up being their dollars if they do what we want.