Ashley Graham Calls GLP-1 Drugs 'Smack in the Face'

Ashley Graham isn't mincing words about what she sees in the Ozempic age. The model and longtime body-acceptance advocate tells Marie Claire that watching so many people rapidly slim down on GLP-1 drugs is "really disheartening" and feels like "a smack in the face to the women who have felt like they've had a voice." She frames the current moment as a reversal of gains made in the mid-2010s, when her rise signaled that bigger bodies could exist on major runways and magazine covers.

Graham calls the fashion world "trend obsessed" and describes GLP-1s as "a time," not an end point, adding that the drugs aren't "going to wipe out a whole statistic of women." She says she's seen "more movement for plus-size women than some people give the whole industry credit for" and adds that she plans to "keep showing up and taking up space." The next wave, she notes, is already here: a broad mix of plus-size influencers telling younger followers, "Be yourself, be who you want to be. If you have cellulite, who cares?" More of Graham's interview here.