“I’ve put myself out there in more ways than the normal person.”

Eye of the Beholder

Ashley Graham has been body-positive since before it was a buzzword. As one of the most compelling voices in modeling, she has transformed the fashion industry—and she’s just getting started

By Linda Wells

At the urging of her agent, I met a model for drinks at the Mark Hotel. Sounds glamorous. It isn’t.

Meeting with models is excruciating, and not because of their beauty or any feelings of inadequacy I have about my own looks. I don’t like judging anyone’s appearance. I mean, I’m fine being judgy, and I can do snarky, but not in a formal setting. And yet there’s no getting around the fact that when you’re hiring a model—as I did when I was the editor of Allure, and again when I was the chief creative officer of Revlon—judging a person’s looks when they’re standing right in front of you, sometimes trembling, was part of the job. I hated it.