Ashley Graham was born in Lincoln, October 30, 1987. She is a model who has appeared on numerous covers of fashion magazines including Maxim or Vogue, but most notably in the 2016 one of the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue and in the summer 2021 on the Wall Street Journal.

In 2019, she hosted the second season of the Lifetime TV show American Beauty Star. In 2022 she posed for the Pirelli 2023 calendar. Graham is the oldest of three sisters. When she was in middle school, she and her family moved to Lincoln, Nebraska.

She attended Scott Middle School from 1999 to 2002 and Lincoln Southwest High School from 2002 to 2005. As a youth, she was diagnosed with ADD and dyslexia. Graham was identified in 2000 by the I & I agency while shopping at Oak View Mall in Omaha, Nebraska.

Graham is a proponent of the body positivity and the Health at Every Size movements. In 2016, she became the first size 16 model to be featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue. Glamour described Graham's cover as bringing size acceptance into the mainstream. She appeared on the cover of Vogue in 2017, becoming the first plus-size model to appear in the magazine.