The commercial was deemed 'too sexual' to be aired by Fox because of Ashley's bust, leading Lane Bryant to point out a double-standard for plus-size ladies: the spot was completely tame compared to many other lingerie commercials (Victoria's Secret, we're looking at you!)
Since then, Ashley has scored spots in Sports Illustrated, Vogue, Harper's Bazaar, Elle, and Bust Magazine. She's done advertisements for Bloomingdale's, Macy's, Hanes, Nordstrom, Target, Evans, and Addition Elle.
She's spoken out about body acceptance, including speeches at high schools. And this January, she snagged her best gig yet: the cover of Vogue!
According to Vogue Editor-in-Chief Alexandra Shulman, Vogue chose Ashley not only for her modelling skills, but for her personality as well. She's opinionated and articulate, and has an energy that can't help but affect everybody around her.
Shulman got Ashley to open up in her interview, where she lays it all out on the line. Ashley talks size, beauty, persistence and getting what you want, and how to be invited back as a model. “For 10 years I’d been told I was always going to be a catalogue girl, never a cover girl. Well, I got with IMG and did five covers in a year, boom, boom, boom."
Ashley also spoke candidly about her size, something that's always been a discussion around her work. "Do I sometimes wish I were thinner? God, in the old days, absolutely I did, but now I feel that to lose weight would be disloyal to myself," she explained. "A lot of who I am is connected to my size, and I am so happy with who I am.”
Whether she stays at the same weight, or gains or loses weight, Ashley is a fabulous model who's showing us all how to be a little more comfortable in our own skins.
In a changing world, Ashley is helping to overturn the standard definition of what a model is supposed to look like. "My body is MY body," she penned earlier in an open letter to designers, asking them to create their clothing in larger sizes, "I call the shots."
Photo Credit: Vogue
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