Ashley Graham Opens Up For the First Time About Sexual Harassment on Set at Age 17

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Ashley Graham is opening up about a traumatic experience in her past. The 29-year-old supermodel got candid with Glamour magazine for her July cover story.

Though Graham is very confident in herself these days, back when she was 17 she experienced a very uncomfortable situation with a photo assistant on the set of a photo shoot. Graham told the story, admitting she’d never publicly shared it before.


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“He was like, ‘Hey, come here,’ and he led me into a closet. And I was like, ‘What?’ I thought he was going to show me something,” she recalled. “And he pulled me in, and he pulled his penis out. And he was like, ‘Grab it.’ And I was like, ‘No! That’s disgusting.’ I freaked out. And thank God I was closer to the door, and I just bolted out.”

Nathaniel Goldberg/Glamour

So now, Graham is fully in charge of the photos she’s putting out, but that doesn’t mean she’s opposed to nudity.

“My thing is: If it’s vulgar, and it’s, like, me grabbing my breasts and showing nipple, I’m not going to do it,” she said. “When I said, ‘I don’t do nip and bush,’ I didn’t feel like I had to be specific as to what kind. So you might even see more nipple coming up. But trust me: You will never see my vagina!”

Nathaniel Goldberg/Glamour

The confident Graham admitted to the mag that she still has times when she struggles with body positivity.

“Some days I feel like I have superpowers, but some days I feel like I’m the fattest girl in the world,” she said. “And I talk about my back fat and my cellulite because it’s important to have women in the media addressing the things that society has called flaws.”

Nathaniel Goldberg/Glamour


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Graham added that when it comes to being called a sex symbol, she’s fully aware of her core audience.

Nathaniel Goldberg/Glamour

“When I met with Eva Chen from Instagram, she told me that 75 percent of my followers are women,” the proud size 16 model said. “So if anyone wants to call me a sex symbol, it’s women. We are redefining sexy.”

For more from Graham, watch ET’s exclusive interview below!

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