Model Ashley Graham has some harrowing news to share in her upcoming memoir, A New Model: What Confidence, Beauty, And Power Really Look Like. And sadly, it's a reality many women have faced in their lives.
The Vogue cover star reveals that at the tender age of 10, she was molested by a family friend's adult son.
According to People, Graham says in the book that the 18-year-old man forced her to touch his erection as they were in her family's laundry room, drying off after going swimming. Afterwards, the now 29-year-old remembers running out of the room terrified.
"It left me with so many lingering questions," Graham recalled.
But the body positive advocate isn't the first in the fashion biz to open up about being assaulted.
Last month, Australian model Fernanda Ly opened up to Models.com about unwanted touching while on the job, and the "countless times" she was asked to change her clothes in public.
"I was once shooting a lookbook where the stylist, helping me dress, used this chance to feel my body up much more than necessary and continued to do so throughout the entire shoot," she confessed. "Countless times have I had to undress in undesirable public situations, but even now I can remember the disgusting feel of this man’s hands tracing my body."
"Most of us start when underaged, we develop and mature as women under all this as the norm," the Louis Vuitton runway star added.
"Most of us start when underaged, we develop and mature as women under all this as the norm."
In her book, Graham also wrote about suffering from verbal abuse from her father, who often agreed with the modelling agencies that told her she needed to lose weight.
But while the "America's Next Top Model" judge has definitely had her ups and downs, she's working to make sure others can learn from her past.
She takes every opportunity to not only empower other women and girls to learn to love the skin they're in, but now, to also encourage them to come forward with their stories of sexual assault, and remind them they're not alone.
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