Ashley Graham celebrates first Vogue cover: 'What an absolute honor'

LOS ANGELES, Dec. 2 (UPI) -- Ashley Graham is celebrating her first-ever Vogue cover.

The 28-year-old American model said on Instagram this week that it was "an absolute honor" to land the January 2017 cover of British Vogue.

"What an absolute honor! My first #vogue cover!! Thank you to everyone at @britishvogue! #covergirl #beautybeyondsize #liveyourdreams," she captioned a photo of the issue.

Graham has previously appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated, Cosmopolitan and Glamour, but is the first plus-size model to land British Vogue. She opened up about her modeling journey in the accompanying interview.

"For 10 years I'd been told I was always going to be a catalogue girl, never a cover girl. Well, I got with IMG and did five covers in a year, boom, boom, boom. See, if you have a pretty face doors will open, but your job isn't just to walk through them, it's to get invited back," the star said.

"Look, I hit the beauty jackpot, I get it, but that's not enough, you've got to have more to have longevity in this business. It's always been, 'Okay, so what can I do now?'"

Graham previously said in the October issue of Self that her confidence didn't happen overnight. She admitted to the magazine that she used to be "so insecure" as a teen and during her early career.

"It was a dark place [early on]," the model confessed. "I [would look] at myself in the mirror and say, 'I hate you. You're so gross.' I'm looking at my cellulite and my back fat and thinking, 'I have to go shoot lingerie tomorrow and smile, and I am heinous.'"

"I had to realize that if I didn't really love who I was and if I couldn't appreciate this -- my body -- as my moneymaker, then I wasn't going to make any money," she said.

Graham is known for her work with Lane Bryant and swimsuitsforall. She revealed a Barbie doll made in her likeness at the 2016 Glamour Women of the Year Awards in November.