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Opinion: Ashley Graham’s Sports Illustrated Cover

This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at UCF chapter.

How would you feel if you saw yourself on a magazine cover? Pretty good, right? Now, how would you feel if you saw yourself, flaws and all, on a magazine cover and got positive feedback? Pretty f*cking life changing. 

Ashley Graham is the epitome of change and self-love. She posed for Sports Illustrated knowing she was a bigger model and expecting to be in a featured article, yet she found herself on the front cover. She didn’t let society shift her passion for modeling and continued to strive toward her goal. 

Sports Illustrated introduced the first plus size model, Ashley Graham, on the cover of the swimsuit edition.

“MJ came over to me and she had tears in her eyes and she said, ‘This is going to make history,’ and in that moment, I knew that I wasn’t just there as a favor, I wasn’t there just like, ‘Oh let’s put the big girl in.’ I was there because I was supposed to be there.” – Ashley Graham

Photo credit: 1, 2, 3