--- title: Ashley Graham: Watch Her Inspiring TED Talk About Body Image description: "The fashion industry might persist to label me as plus-sized, but I like to think of it as my-sized," she said canonical: https://time.com/3902544/ashley-graham-body-acceptance-talk/ author: Charlotte Alter article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-05-30T20:31:55.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:48:26.295Z og:title: Ashley Graham Explains Why You Shouldn’t Call Her a ‘Plus-Sized’ Model og:description: "The fashion industry might persist to label me as plus-sized, but I like to think of it as my-sized," she said og:url: https://time.com/3902544/ashley-graham-body-acceptance-talk/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Ashley Graham Explains Why You Shouldn’t Call Her a ‘Plus-Sized’ Model twitter:description: "The fashion industry might persist to label me as plus-sized, but I like to think of it as my-sized," she said twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Ashley Graham Explains Why You Shouldn’t Call Her a ‘Plus-Sized’ Model ## Video: Emma Watson - He For She - Speech [Watch (HLS stream): Emma Watson - He For She - Speech](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/0clamGjK.m3u8) (0:23)  _Published 2014-09-22. Emma Watson -He For She- Speech_  by [Charlotte Alter](https://time.com/author/charlotte-alter/)  ## Charlotte Alter Senior Correspondent May 30, 2015 8:31 PM UTC  by [Charlotte Alter](https://time.com/author/charlotte-alter/)  ## Charlotte Alter Senior Correspondent May 30, 2015 8:31 PM UTC Body activist and model Ashley Graham made a moving TED Talk speech about the power of self-acceptance and the problem with the term “plus sized.” In an April TEDx Talk that was recently [uploaded to YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xAgawjzimjc), Graham takes on the fashion industry through radical self-acceptance. Here’s how she started the talk: --- > “” --- She went on to describe how the term “plus-sized model” made her feel like she was an outsider in the fashion world, even though she had a successful modeling career. “I felt free once I realized I was never going to fit the narrow mold society wanted me to fit in,” she said. “The fashion industry might persist to label me as plus-sized, but I like to think of it as my-sized.” She noted that in the U.S., plus sizes start at anything from 8-16\. Graham is a co-founder of [ALDA,](http://danielle-redman-9d9x.squarespace.com/intro/) a coalition of plus-sized models. “Back in Nebraska I was known as the fat model—the girl who was pretty for a big girl,” she said. She said that idea was isolating. “My body, like my confidence, has been picked apart, manipulated and controlled by others who didn’t necessarily understand it.” “We need to work together to redefine the global image of beauty, and it starts by becoming your own role model,” she said. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3902544/ashley-graham-body-acceptance-talk/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3902544/ashley-graham-body-acceptance-talk/"},"headline":"Ashley Graham Explains Why You Shouldn’t Call Her a ‘Plus-Sized’ Model","datePublished":"2015-05-30T20:31:55.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T07:48:26.295Z","description":"\"The fashion industry might persist to label me as plus-sized, but I like to think of it as my-sized\"","url":"https://time.com/3902544/ashley-graham-body-acceptance-talk/","keywords":["Living","Newsfeed","fat","Body Image","beauty","fashion","Body","Models"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Charlotte Alter","jobTitle":"Senior Correspondent","url":"https://time.com/author/charlotte-alter/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-living/","name":"Living"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3902544/ashley-graham-body-acceptance-talk/","name":"Ashley Graham Explains Why You Shouldn’t Call Her a ‘Plus-Sized’ Model"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Emma Watson - He For She - Speech","description":"Emma Watson -He For She- Speech","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/0clamGjK/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2014-09-22T11:27:02.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/0clamGjK.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/3902544/ashley-graham-body-acceptance-talk/","duration":"PT23S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/3902544/ashley-graham-body-acceptance-talk/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```