Ashley Graham Shows off Her Gratitude as She ‘Buckles’ up for 2018

Sports Illustrated Swimsuit model Ashley Graham has had a phenomenal year, and to show her appreciation to fans for helping make 2017 what it is, the 30-year-old took to social media to express her gratitude.

Showing off nine magazine covers in a collage shared to her Instagram on Saturday, Graham captioned the image, “Grateful. Buckle up for 2018.”

Graham has been sharing her plans for the new year with fans since the start of December, which include the latest in her lingerie line.

“Start the new year in the sexiest of styles with my lingerie!” she wrote alongside an image showcasing the model in the Essentials Icon t-shirt bra with a matching panty, now available online.

Earlier this season, Graham highlighted her flirty side, while staying confident in her body, which is admittedly non-traditional to the modeling and fashion industries. To make things better, the model said her photos for one of the spreads she shot this past fall was completely unretouched.

Graham has never been one to shy away from the talk about body image. In her Vogue cover shoot alongside Kendall Jenner and Gigi Hadid, the curvy model has much to celebrate but her achievements were shortly being blemished by controversy over certain parts of the image.

Of the seven women photographed for the March 2017 issue, Graham was the only curvy model. However, unlike the others, she has her hand covering her thigh. The body positive role model’s social media followers were quick to point out that they also believed Hadid’s arm was photoshopped to extend over Graham’s stomach.

While she cleared the air on the situation, a majority of comments called out the magazine for manipulating the photograph. Subsequently, Graham shared another photo of herself and the other women jumping around the beach with the model coming out saying that the image was not edited.

“They [Sports Illustrated editors] did not retouch me,” she told PEOPLE. “They did not take out things. They didn’t reshape my body in any way, shape or form.”