Popular supermodel Ashley Graham recently shed some light on the time she deleted her socials and how liberating it felt for her. The activist, who is married to Justin Ervin, just had some new additions to her family of three in January after giving birth to twin boys, Roman and Malachi.
The Revlon brand ambassador previously talked about how she had to struggle during childbirth and blacked out until she was slapped awake. The ensuing weeks saw her mostly on bed rest, under the care of a midwife.
In a more recent interview, Graham opened up about how she took care of herself mentally through the entire ordeal. The model said she deleted her social media for weeks after the birth and felt liberated by the action.
Ashley Graham Said Deleting Instagram Was A ‘Breath Of Fresh Air’
View this post on Instagram
In a recent interview with People magazine hosted by Revlon and Real, the mother of three recently opened up about her relationship with her online followers. Graham also mentioned the time she decided to prioritize her mental health and go offline entirely.
Graham revealed that she deleted Instagram for six weeks after giving birth to her twin boys. She said, “I tandem feed the twins, and I’m just sitting there trying to keep myself awake. And what do you do when you try to keep yourself awake in the middle of the night? You go on social media.”
The entrepreneur added that deleting the app felt liberating and like a “breath of fresh air.” “I am such an unconscious scroller,” she continued. “And when I deleted Instagram from my phone, I recognized the shift so much that I started telling everybody, and it felt so liberating cause I’d never done that before. It was like this breath of fresh air.”
Graham Said She Bonded With Her Family
Further on in the interview, the 34-year-old revealed that the absence of the app was so noticeable that it allowed space for her to read more books and bond with her recently increased family. The break let her review her priorities and kept her in check mentally.
Graham said, “It was just a different way to keep myself awake instead of sitting there, comparing myself, judging, fantasizing about the things I don’t have.” She added that she had more responsibility for her children and always wanted to be present for them.
“As a mom now, if I’m not in a great place mentally, then I am not going to be present there for my kids,” she said. “And I don’t want to miss these moments. There’s so many precious moments, and every moment is a stage. As messy and active as it feels, I always remind myself, this is just a stage, and then we’re going to go to the next stage.”
Revlon X Real Campaign
View this post on Instagram
Since landing her first contract with multinational cosmetics company Revlon, Graham has launched several products and gone on campaigns with the big name brand. The most recent campaign is a collaboration with mental health company called Real.
Real is a company tasked with aiding the mental health of its users. It also gives access to licensed therapists who supply useful education material while working on issues linked to beauty and mental health. This includes healthily navigating social media and helping your children deconstruct beauty standards.
The Revlon x Real campaign, titled “Caring For Your Mental Wellness Is Beautiful,” focuses on how beauty and wellness positively impact mental health by setting up self-care rituals. Another aspect of the outreach allows consumers of beauty products to scan the QR code located on a co-branded Real x Revlon display.
These can be found in more than 7,000 CVS, Rite-Aid, and several other mass retail stores in the country. Scanning the code will give the buyer a month on the Real app free of charge when purchasing a monthly membership. The consumer can also get three months free if they purchase a six-month membership.
Ashley Graham On Taking Time For Herself
View this post on Instagram
Graham also shed some light on how she made sure to take time for herself once in a while and communicated it to her loved ones. She said, “Me, my assistant, my mom, and my husband, we all share Google calendar together.”
“So if they see that there is a 30-minute block where I am taking time for myself, everybody just knows, she’s going and doing whatever she needs to do,” the 34-year-old continued. “You just have to be open and not afraid to be like, ‘I need time.'”
Besides taking time out for herself, Graham also mentioned a form of touch therapy she practiced whenever she felt especially stressed. The therapy, called Self-havening, was taught to her by a midwife and mainly consisted of rubbing down your arms while talking to yourself.
“You just rub your arms down, and you have these like conversations with yourself,” she said. “It’s something you can do in the moment, wherever you are. And those moments have helped me.”
View this post on Instagram
