Ashley Graham has nothing but love for her postpartum stretch marks. The model is spreading body positivity by embracing the marks in a new video. She became a mother to her son, Isaac, just nine months ago. She’s been open about everything from pumping to diaper emergencies so it’s probably no shock to you that’s she’s still keeping it real.
In the video, the mother places her hand in a heart shape over her stretch marks. The video, shared on Instagram, is captioned by a series of rainbow heart emoji, “????????❤️???????????? .” What’s not to love?
Ashley Graham has been sharing images to promote acceptance and empowerment.
Graham has proudly shown her stretch marks on social media several times before, both before and after her pregnancy. In 2017, the body-positive model shared photos from a photoshoot for V magazine, including one of the stretch marks on her lower back. Graham said that she thanks her mother for teaching her to love all parts of her body.
“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,” Graham told V. “She didn’t tell me that it’s beautiful or ugly. She just made it a nonissue.”
And, in August 2019, shortly after announcing her pregnancy, she shared a selfie that showed a view of her body from the side. She captioned the photo, “Same same but a little different.”
Graham has inspired a number of women to feel comfortable in their skin.
Following her sharing the intimate portrait, fans felt the need to express their positive feelings. They did so both in words and by also sharing pictures of their own stretch marks.
“I just wanted to say thank you so much for posting all of your stretch mark pre-and-post pregnancy photos. Whether you’ve had a baby or not, it’s truly inspiring,” she said a few days after receiving the outpouring of love from fans.
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The Swimsuits for All designer revealed that she decided to share the photo after having a bad day.
“I thought, ‘You know what, I’m just going to post this and I know there’s another woman out there who’s feeling the same way I’m feeling who might be going through kind of a rough day in how she looks and how her body is changing,” she said.
Both before and after Isaac’s arrival in July, Graham made sure that her stretch marks remained visible in all the photos she modeled in for Swimsuits for All. Coincidentally, the photos were snapped by her husband, Justin Ervin which is perhaps why she looks like she’s absolutely glowing in each of them.
“There’s always a question of ‘What do you want us to retouch, and what do you want us to take out?’ And I said, ‘Nothing’, ” except from a clamp holding up the DIY backdrop,” she explained. “I want everybody to know genuinely. I want people to see who I am because everybody has a story.”
We’re so glad that Graham is keeping the love alive and letting others know that postpartum bodies are completely normal. Getting stretch marks at any time in your life is absolutely normal and Graham has been bringing that positivity and spreading the message for a while now. We thank her for it!
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