Ashley Graham Breaks Down Crying While Directing Lingerie Shoot

While directing her first lingerie shoot, Ashley Graham was overcome with emotions and broke down in tears on set. The Sports Illustrated swimsuit star teamed up with Glamour magazine to direct four young women in a daring photo shoot in which she helped them discover their true beauty and the moment clearly hit home with Ashley.

During the picture session, the 29-year-old body positivity advocate and four young models – Karolena, Anastasia, Alyssa, and Kaitlyn – seemed to be having a ball and kept the vibe upbeat and lighthearted. However, when Ashley saw how wonderful the final images turned out, she began crying.

“I think of all the young girls out there that are so insecure with their bodies,” Graham said. “They see you and they say, ‘If she can do it, I can do it.’”

One of the models, Alyssa, confessed to Ashley that she was recovering from an eating disorder. She was timid to take off her robe on set for the photo shoot at first. By the end, she was dancing and posing for the camera like a total pro.

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The Vogue cover girl continued by saying: “People just think the body revolution is just a ‘trend’ and a ‘fad,’ and, you guys, it’s not. It goes from big girls to little girls. It goes from Spanish girls to black girls. It goes from white girls to young girls. It’s everybody in between.”

Graham believes that the “body revolution” that has taken over the fashion industry is going to have a larger impact on society as a whole in the future.

“If we keep having this conversation, if we keep talking about the things that society has said are ugly, the things that we don’t see in media, that is what is gonna change,” she said.

Ashley Graham shared a clip from the photo shoot on Instagram. She posted the video with the caption: “Thank you to these gorgeous women for sharing their honest feelings about their bodies with me and @glamourmag. Get the tissue ready!”

Earlier this year, Ashley Graham released her memoir, A New Model: What Confidence, Beauty and Power Really Look Like. In the book, she explains how her size affected her initial efforts to pursue modeling as a career.

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“Everything was about exterior, everything was about weight for me,” she said. “I really had to step back and say, ‘OK, am I looking for love through sex? Am I looking for love through food? Am I looking for love through the affirmation of fashion people who don’t understand my body?’ I had to really have, like, a come to Jesus moment.”

Photo Credit: Getty / D Dipasupil