Ashley Graham wasn’t shy about sharing the ups and downs of her pregnancy last year: The model, who gave birth to son Isaac Menelik Giovanni Ervin in January, wrote candidly about her pregnancy weight and learning to accept the changes in her body.
It’s no surprise, then, that the new mom is just as willing to get real about post-baby life. On Tuesday, the body positive icon shared a photo in the nude which revealed her post-baby stretch marks and included a very simple, very sweet caption: “same me. few new stories.”
Graham garnered support from her model friends, including Karlie Kloss, Lily Aldridge and Joan Smalls in the comments, as well of words of encouragement from women who simply related to the post.
“16 year old me sobbed over my first set of these. I haven’t learned to love them but I have got to a place where I don’t give a sh*t about them,” fashion editor Jennifer Dickinson wrote. “You look (even more) beautiful to me.”
“So many years I was ashamed of my stretch marks and ‘baby pouch belly,’” one mom who follows the model wrote. “Now I love my body. I created life. I have war wounds. And that is what makes me who I am today. Kudos to you too.”
Earlier this month, Graham shared a sweet photo of herself with the baby and her filmmaker husband, Justin Ervin.
Two months prior, the Sports Illustrated cover girl talked about how she struggled with her “new body” in the midst of her pregnancy. That insecurity was the exact reason she decided to post her first naked pregnancy photo, the model said on her digital series, “Fearless with Ashley Graham.”
“I had just announced that I was pregnant and I thought then I was going to feel good and I didn’t. I just felt terrible. And that morning, actually ... ” Graham said, fighting back tears. “I was like, ‘Get it together, Ashley, there’s other women out there that are going through the same thing as you — why don’t you have a dialogue?’”
Eventually, the model made peace with her body. In the final stretch of her pregnancy, the model shared a photo of herself posing in yoga class and wrote that she’d gained 50 pounds in her pregnancy so far — and noted that “the best part is, I don’t care!”
“I have never felt better, and I am so thankful that my body and son have allowed me to be as mobile and flexible as I have been,” Graham added. “Between working out, yoga, acupuncture and lymphatic massages — I finally feel like I figured out this whole pregnancy thing and how to feel my best.”
Graham even debuted a new swimwear campaign with the brand Swimsuits for All during her pregnancy.
“Shooting this Swimsuits for All campaign while pregnant was truly empowering,” Graham told Harper’s Bazaar in January. “I’ve been honest and have shared my feelings about my body changing, and this shoot for my anniversary collection reignited my confidence and reaffirmed that our bellies are beautiful. We should be celebrating our bodies at all stages throughout our lives.”
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