Now, This Is A SuperModel

Ashley Graham isn't a sample size. Which is exactly why she’s become the face of a movement.

- Jada Yuan

Ashley Graham’s life long mission to lift women up has taken on ridiculous, corporeal form today. That form is me, clinging to her arm, trying not to die, as she takes me Roller blading for maybe the third time in my life. “I know you’re nervous. You can totally do this!

I got you!” Graham cheers, and we’re off— the modeling world’s most inspiring success story and her human kettlebell, weaving through the cyclists and runners zooming by in both directions along Tribeca’s West Side bike path.

This summer, Graham, who is 29, is staying close to New York after several months in Los Angeles tossing off quips and handing out real talk as the breakout judge on the reboot of America’s Next Top Model. It’s a job that may make her a household name, and she’s overqualified for it. Less than two years ago, through some alchemy of beauty, luck, and sheer will, Graham became the first model with clothing tags bearing numbers like 14 and 16 to show off her glistening, spray-tanned curves on the cover of the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue. This March, she broke similar ground as the first model of her size to appear on the cover of Vogue in the magazine’s 125-year history—a one-two punch of commercial and high-fashion dominance that not even ANTM creator Tyra Banks in her heyday could claim. That’s not to mention the memoir, the lingerie line, the tedx talk, and the fact that she’s fast becoming a millennial Oprah for body image (you get confidence, and you get confidence, and you get confidence!), all against a backdrop of some designers refusing to lend her clothes and internet haters lurking around every corner.