'Real beauty' Ashley Graham's stunning lingerie photo wows fans: 'Sexiest woman in the world'

Ashley Graham is not just a model. The 30-year-old is also a body image activist who usually takes to social media to flaunt her plus-size figure in order to inspire women to embrace their body types.

On Sunday, 17 December, the American beauty once again took to Instagram to share a photo of herself proudly showing off her curves in a two-piece lingerie set.

The snap shows Graham sitting on the floor and looking straight into the camera as she places her left hand over her chest. Her right hand supports her upper body, while her long locks messily cover a part of her face. Her look is further accentuated with a dash of mascara and nude lipstick.

"Start the new year in the sexiest of styles with my lingerie! #AshleyGrahamLingerie x @additionelle is now available on ASOS.com!" she wrote alongside the snap that she shared with her 5.8 million fans on the photo-and-video-sharing application.

Not surprisingly, the picture is garnering a lot of attention, with more than 214,000 likes as of now. Fans have also rushed to the comments section to call Graham "beautiful" and "gorgeous".

"@theashleygraham you are definitely a stunning and beautiful person inside and out and a wonderful role model to look up too," a fan commented, while another added, "You are my inspiration!"

Someone else wrote, "You are so pretty, its really cool to see a real beauty like this ", while another user said, "Not just sexy lingerie but sexiest woman in the world. U are absolutely sexy and gorgeous."

Graham broke onto the modelling scene in the early 2000s after overcoming numerous rejections when she first started to pursue a career as a model shortly after leaving high school. However, she refused to give up on her dreams thanks to her mother's support, who told her she would be changing people's lives with her work one day.

And she did eventually change lives. In 2016, Graham became the first plus-size model to feature on the cover of Sports Illustrated. At the time, she told Glamour that her face on the magazine cover "wasn't just for curvy girls".

"It was for every woman. Most of us have not been told, 'If you have cellulite and your thighs rub together, who cares?'" she had said.