Ashley Graham has dominated the fashion world with countless campaigns, runway shows, and even her own swimwear line. Now, the model is taking her major selling power — and body positivity activism — to the beauty industry, where models who aren't straight-sized haven't traditionally broken through.
Revlon announced today that Graham is the newest face of its "Live Boldly" campaign, which recently launched with new brand ambassador Gal Gadot. Adwoa Aboah, Imaan Hammam, and Raquel Zimmerman join them in the campaign.
"Historically, curvy girls are not given beauty contacts," Graham told WWD. "It’s kind of groundbreaking, because in my generation of models, this hasn’t happened yet. This is one of those moments where I’m over the moon, I cried a little."
This calls to mind the time the internet frenzied over plus-size model Clémentine Desseaux starring in a Christian Louboutin beauty campaign in December 2015 — which was actually false. Louboutin simply reposted a video she created herself. Yet, the inaccurate story and celebrations spread far and wide, revealing a glaringly obvious lack of body diversity in beauty ads. Which, come to think of it, doesn't make any sense at all.
Graham put it best: "The average American woman is a size 14 and if you ask me, lipstick does not have a size." It's encouraging to see an iconic makeup brand like Revlon stepping up — it's about time more companies followed suit.
Kristina Rodulfo is the Beauty Director of Women's Health—she oversees beauty coverage across print and digital and is an expert in product testing, identifying trends, and exploring the intersections of beauty, wellness, and culture. Prior to Women's Health, the Filipino-American, NYC native and NYU alumna was at ELLE.com for four years. As Senior Beauty Editor, she reported and co-produced the Webby Award-nominated documentary Beat: How Drag Queens Shaped the Beauty Industry and hosted the millions-viewed video series "Beauty Haul." She can never decide whether or not to get bangs, feels naked without winged eyeliner, and will never shut up about running the NYC Marathon.
