Another day, another reason to praise Ashley Graham. On Monday, February 17, the newly minted mother took to Instagram to proudly show off her post-pregnancy stretch marks.
“Same me. Few new stories,” Ashley, 32, captioned a raw photo of her naked stomach with her arm covering her breasts. The longtime model, who gave birth on January 18, was met with high praise from her followers. “You are ART,” one person commented.
“Stunning,” added another. “You’re so beautiful,” a third user chimed in, while a fourth echoed, “I just adore that you’re sharing this! Thank you.” Of course, this is hardly the first time Ashley has posted a photo like this. In fact, ahead of welcoming her son, Menelik Giovanni Ervin, into the world, the Nebraska native shared nude pregnancy selfies quite a bit.
However, at first, the decision to post didn’t come easily. “I had just announced that I was pregnant and I thought I was [going to] feel good … and I didn’t. I just felt terrible,” Ashley told guest Taylor Hoit during a November 2019 episode of her online video series, Fearless.
“That morning actually, I really thought to myself, ‘Get it together, Ashley. There are other women out there who are going through the same thing as you,’” she continued. “‘Why don’t you have a dialogue with them? This is a new body that I’m walking into. Why don’t I just put myself out there with this new body?’”
Since that first nude picture, Ashley continued to inspire expecting mothers everywhere. “Ashley’s showed her fans and the world that being pregnant can be glorious,” a source exclusively told Life & Style in September 2019. “She’s not only calm and actually glowing, but she feels sexy. She’s doing yoga, posing on red carpets in gorgeous clothes [and] she’s feeling herself like never before.”
Clearly, Ashley is still feeling herself … and rightfully so!
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