'Same Me. Few New Stories': Ashley Graham Shares Her Stretch Marks

Ashley Graham keeps it real by sharing her post-baby stretch marks

Model and new momma Ashley Graham is continuing her apparent crusade to make all moms feel seen and loved by sharing her postpartum journey with the same level of candidness that she shared her pregnancy. She’s been posting gorgeous breastfeeding snaps and talking all about her natural birth while also gushing about her adorable baby boy (because look at him). Now, she’s showing us her stretch marks proving that all moms go through the same stuff, even models.

“same me. few new stories,” she captioned the photo of her belly. Yup, she’s got some stretch marks. This shouldn’t be breaking news, but in a celeb world where we often see “snapbacks” to a famous momma’s previous size and shape with nothing about the road to getting there, it’s pretty groundbreaking.

Of course, no celebrity mom owes the world a single thing in the way of photos and details about her birth experience, but we sure do appreciate those posts when they happen. Even though we all go through so many of the same things during pregnancy and in the weeks after, the messier parts still aren’t discussed openly as much as they should be considering how very common they are.

I am barely 5’2″ and while I somehow escaped stretch marks with my first baby, BOY did I make up for it with my second. I carried him like a basketball, all out front, which meant my short torso was stretched to the max. I itched like crazy as the marks arrived and had no idea how many there were until after I had him and finally saw the underside of my belly, fully understanding why my husband had started sympathy-cringing when catching sight of my naked tummy — they looked painful they were so deep. As a young mom who had hardly talked to anyone else who had gone through it, I was truly stunned at their appearance and spent many hours crying over how visible and dark they were.

Now I know better — but I wish I’d had Graham around 10 years ago to dry my tears with her epic realness.

Women get stretch marks. Be it from pregnancy, gaining or losing weight, or just… living. They are normal and expected and there’s nothing wrong with having them. Mine are still there a decade later, faint and silvery, but there — a visible reminder of what my body is capable of. It helps to see stars like Graham putting theirs on proud display with zero shame. Because we’re all in this together and should be only in awe of what our bodies can do.