However, Graham is pushing to change that. “[Body positivity] has been my cause for so long because it’s been my issue for so long,” she said. “You stand up for the things that affect you deeply, and there have been so many times that I’ve been told I’m too big or too small. But the moment I stopped conforming to what agents or clients or designers wanted me to do was the moment that I actually started working a lot more because I made my own decisions. I realized that this is a business and I’m not just a pretty face among others. I realized that I could have longevity, and that’s when I coined the term ‘body activist’ and started speaking up.”

And honestly, thank god she did. Even today, when diversity is so widely celebrated (or, at the very least, so often used as a marketing gimmick for big brands—let’s be serious, we have a long way to go there, too); when we have our first female presidential candidate, further proving that women aren’t just objects to be molded and ogled by the male gaze, there’s no real range of shapes or sizes in high fashion, especially on the runway, which is more consumer-facing now than ever before. Shouldn’t we be showing those consumers that they don’t need to be a size two in order to wear (or, for that matter, buy) something fabulous? In order to fit in? In order to be accepted? For every Lane Bryant #ImNoAngel campaign, there are scores of advertisements and runway shows not-so-subtly telling women that they’re not beautiful unless they’re a sample size. And quite frankly, that’s some bullshit.

“It’s so important that fashion starts catching up with size diversity, because it’s about inclusion now,” said Graham. “It’s not just about one standard of beauty. It’s not just about representing one type of woman. It’s about representing every type of woman. And that’s even more beautiful than having women conform to what someone tells them beauty is.

“I’ve been on hold for very, very big designers for runway shows, and I [always] get released at the last minute because they say they can’t get samples made for me in time,” Graham continued. “I told my agent, ‘If they just put two size fours together, they could give me an outfit that would work!’ It’s like, come on, guys. I don’t understand what the runway holdup is,” said Graham, who recently walked H&M’s wonderfully inclusive Fall 2016 Paris show.

None of this is to say that sample-size, or what the industry calls “straight-size” models aren’t beautiful or healthy. They absolutely are. They’re gorgeous! But the message our incredibly far-reaching business should be sending is that healthy women of any size are gorgeous. This is one of the reasons that Graham decided to strip down for Sports Illustrated, whose readership is over 20 percent female. “I didn’t realize that going into the shoot, and I thought, Wow, I’m not just doing this for some guy to hang on his wall. I’m doing this because a woman is going to get this magazine, open it up, and see herself. Yes, it was a career changer, but I also did it to show [all] women that they can be sexy.”

So what must we fashion folk do to move forward? Getting rid of the term “plus-size” would probably be a good start. “I understand it in a department store when you have to separate the clothing in order for [the consumer] to shop more quickly,” said Graham. “I also understand it when you’re booking a model and you’ve got your petite girl, your black girl, your plus-size girl, your redhead. But to be labeled as a plus-size woman is so divisive. I think it classifies you into a different category that may make someone think that you’re not an equal.” Graham would also like to see us reach a point where size no longer needs to be a conversation. “We need to continue talking about it, but there has to be a point where we don’t have this discussion anymore. I also believe that, in the beauty industry as well as the fashion world, [curvy girls] are not being represented.”

On a positive note, Graham says she has seen a shift in the way young women look at themselves, and credits that to social media. “In the last two years, I’ve never seen young women more confident, and I feel like it’s due to social media. You’re able to find your tribe on social media. You’re able to find women and people who look like you and with whom you can communicate. I also think that, now more than ever, with the conversation about body diversity, women are able to look in the mirror and say, ‘I love you,’ and actually mean it, because they are seeing women that look like them in media.”