http://www.vogue.in VOGUE INDIA JUNE 185
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VIEWPOINTtalking beauty with
The model, activist, American Beauty Star judge and executive
producer opens up about progress in the body-positivity
movement—and how far we still have to goI’ve been in this industry for almost 20
years. Every year prior to these last
four or so, there’s been only one curvy
model that has a phenomenal year,
and then she goes away. Then it will be
the next girl, then the next. As a mod-
el, everyone’s like, “You’re so beauti-
ful, you’re so beautiful,” but then
you’re not good enough to be in certain
magazines or skinny enough to be with
a certain agency. I always thought,
When is this going to catch fi re? When
are people going to realise that it’s not
just about one girl? That there are so
many of us. Not just models, but wom-
en everywhere in the world.
And then it started happening: curvy
models—more than one—with covers,
and campaigns, and TV, and fi lm. I’m
the fi rst curvy girl of my generation to
get a beauty contract [with Revlon].
[Companies] hear enough from women
on Instagram saying, “I’m not repre-
sented; I want to see someone who
looks like me,” and things are bound to
accelerate.
So when it comes to our visibility, I
think it’s stronger than ever, but it
needs to be even more so, and it needs
to be something that’s not tokenised.
Why does the big girl always have to
talk about confi dence? That’s the thing
I don’t understand. We’re never talking
to skinny girls about how they’re confi -
dent, or putting a skinny girl in a bikiniand asking her why she’s confi dent. It’s
always the big girl who has to talk about
that. It’s a huge double standard. My
hope is that in the next 10 years, we
won’t have to talk about the body-posi-
tive or body-diversity movement be-
cause it will just be a norm. But there
are so many girls being healed of so
much anxiety and depression and is-
sues with themselves because of this
movement, and that’s the most beauti-
ful thing that’s come out of this.
I love to use my platform to talk to
younger women going through issues
with their bodies. I did a [self-esteem-
building] exercise with some girls last
year on set at a video shoot. It was
their fi rst time wearing lingerie in
front of the camera. One was suffering
from anorexia, and I asked her what
she hated most about herself, and she
said her stomach. So I pulled my un-
derwear up so high that the fat pads on
my hips—they look as if God took ex-
tra fat and just plopped it on my hips
but didn’t smooth it out—were really
popping out, and I said, “This is the
part that I don’t like. And we’re going
to touch it, and we’re going to embrace
it together.” And we had this whole
photo shoot where we were touching
the parts of our body that we didn’t
like, and we were screaming, “I love
you.” It was so empowering—it made
me cry. ■ —As told to Jessica ChiaWHAT’S ON HER
BATHROOM
COUNTER THIS
VERY SECOND:- Crystal natural deodorant. “You get
it wet before you put it on your armpits.
It’s fantastic.” - Revlon PhotoReady Candid Natural
Finish Anti-Pollution Foundation. “This
is the most-used item in my makeup
bag. It feels like nothing on my skin.” - The Body Shop Body Butter. “I
moisturise my body right out of the
shower. I’m currently using this butter,
the one with the moringa scent.” - Vitamin E stick. “I recently
got burned on my forehead by a
hairdresser. I got this Vitamin E stick
at Walgreens—I don’t even know the
brand because it rubbed o —and it’s
incredible. You can’t see any marks on
my forehead now.” - T3 Whirl Trio Interchangeable
Barrel Styling Wand. “I’ll be honest: I
can’t do my own hair. David Lopez is
an amazing hairdresser, and he works
these T3 wands like never before.”
Ashley Graham
beauty