“I have been rejected a lot.” — Ashley Graham
She had an Italian Vogue cover booking canceled the night before the shoot. Recalling the setback at Business Insider’s The Long Play, the model said she was the only confirmed model who was dropped.
“I remember crying … my tears were rolling into a bowl of pasta,” she said.
Graham described the pressure of a career that depends on magazine covers, continued attention and visibility. She had to remind herself that losing the booking wasn’t a reflection of her worth. Within 6 months, she appeared in a Sports Illustrated ad.
She also spoke about the fashion industry’s expectations around age and size, explaining that those standards had shaped the rejection she’d experienced throughout her career.
That is the thinking behind the line at the top. Graham turned a long run of closed doors into something she could carry forward, a habit of reading each no as information rather than a verdict.
“So, I have learned to take everything that comes at me, and every rejection, with a grain of salt and a learning curve,” Graham said.