Beauty Comes in All Sizes

After spending four weeks studying eating disorders and the ideal body image I took a little break studying it... except for now. I recently came across a Ted Talk by Ashley Graham where she discussed body acceptance. Ashley Graham is a body activist, lingerie designer, and model… well plus size model. As she says in her Ted Talk, Graham was signed at the age of 13 to a major modeling company.  She talks about how difficult it was for her to answer the question "What do you do for a living?", because every time she said "I'm a model" she would get a funny look and then have to qualify with "a plus size model." It's so unfortunate that someone as beautiful as Graham struggles to feel accepted in her own body because of  "the narrow mold" that society has set as the beautiful body image.

Graham's Shoot for Sports Illustrated

In my opinion Graham is quite the success seeing as she has been on the cover of five magazines and is encouraging women to love their bodies. The Dove brand has launched a campaign to create a "wider definition of beauty after [a] study proved the hypothesis that the definition of beauty had become limiting and unattainable. A quiet shocking statistic is that "only 4% of women around the world consider themselves beautiful." Both Dove and Graham are striving to spread the word the perfection and beauty come in all different shapes and sizes, and that all should be accepted. 

To watch Ashley Graham's Ted Talk click here.