Model & Body Activist Ashley Graham Reveals She Was Molested at 10 in her Memoir “A New Model: What Confidence, Beauty, and Power Really Look Like”

Ashley Graham

In her upcoming memoir, A New Model: What Confidence, Beauty, and Power Really Look Like, model and body activist Ashley Graham opens up about being sexually molested by a family friend when she was only 10 years old.

In her book, Ashley says the 18-year-old son of her parents’ friends forced her to touch his private parts while they were drying off in her laundry room after swimming in the pool. She says she was frightened after the interaction and fled from the room, but that the episode “left me with so many lingering questions.”

She wrote candidly about growing up with a verbally abusive father. While she faced criticism for her weight from modelling agents, the comments stung much more when coming from her dad.

Ashley also revealed that she began experimenting with drugs when she moved to New York City to pursue modelling because she wanted to be “popular.”

Despite her setbacks, Ashley has gone on to be the first curvy model featured in the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue, landed on the cover of Vogue, judged America’s Next Top Model and continues to be an outspoken body positive advocate.

Source: hollywoodlife.com