Ashley Graham had ex-boyfriends who broke up with her because they were worried she would get "too fat"

She said: "Nothing's actually surprised me. I've lived exactly what they're living. I've lived the torment of the names. I've lived the torment of boyfriends breaking up with me because they were afraid I was going to be too fat later in life. It's the same cycle, it doesn't matter what generation we are in. Every kid is going to go through the same thing."

And Ashley admits she suffers from her own body hang ups and gives herself a little pep talk from time to time.

She added: "I wake up sometimes and I think, 'I'm the fattest woman alive'. But it's really about how you handle it when you wake up. I look in the mirror and I have my affirmations. And mine are simple.

"[I say] 'You are bold. You are brilliant and you are beautiful.' And then if my lower pooch is really puffing out that day, I say 'Lower pooch you are cute'. And we have a moment. And if the hips are really popping I say 'I love you too hips.'"

Meanwhile, Ashley is keen to see bigger woman become role models in the industry.

She told People magazine: "Having more role models, more women who are like 'Yea, I have cellulite. Yea, it's even on my arms, not just my legs. My butt is a really bizarre shape but you know what, whatever, I'm just going to go rock it.'

"I think if we had more role models like that that, that were really just speaking their truth about their body and the skin that they're in then maybe young America would be different ... I think that my career has been a huge testament to how the industry is changing right before our eyes. I don't think that a girl my size, as a model, would ever have been on the cover of Vogue and I'm still so shocked at that."