Ashley Graham Says Parents Are Responsible for Teaching Kids to Love Their Bodies
As someone who has graced the cover of many magazines - including the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit issue - Ashley Graham exudes beauty and confidence. But she didn't always feel that way.
The supermodel appeared on Good Morning America on Tuesday to talk about her new book, A New Model: What Confidence, Beauty, and Power Really Look Like, and said that parents play a huge role in developing their kids' body image.
"I really believe that parents need to know they are shaping the future of their children," Graham said in the segment. "Words have power. The things that you say to yourself as a parent - the things that you say maybe even just one time to your children - they take it and they take it into their real world and into their life and beyond."
As someone who received conflicting messages about her body from her mom and her dad, she knows how parents' words can have a long-term impact. "My father was a master of the cutting insult," she wrote in her book. "The worst I ever felt in my entire career was when, a few years into my career, my dad agreed with my new agent, who said I needed to 'tighten up,'" she wrote. "I was sobbing because my dad thought I should lose weight."
Her mom, on the other hand, provided her with the positive reinforcement she kept with her as she has taken on the fashion industry. "One thing my mother did is that she never looked in the mirror and said, 'I'm so fat,'or 'I'm so ugly. I need to go on a diet,'" Graham said on the morning show. "Projecting that onto yourself is only going to make your daughter or son think that of themselves. Because they're a product of you."
For parents who want to keep it positive for their own kids, Graham had this to say: "Just saying, 'You know what - I look really good today' and then just moving on [helps]. They're like, 'Oh, maybe I need to say that to myself.'"
Graham has pledged to make a conscious effort to think about this behavior when she has her own children. "I want to be a better parent than I had," she said. "Even though my mom was absolutely amazing. I think that the next generation should always be better and better."
[h/t People]
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