Being asked to appear on the cover of the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue is a big deal for anyone. But being on the cover less than a year after giving birth? That's a really big deal. Model Hunter McGrady, who was featured in the Swimsuit Issue for the first time in 2017, revealed that she posed for her 2024 cover only eight months after giving birth to her second child. And it was because of her daughter that she did the cover in the first place.
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"I was just about eight and a half months postpartum when I shot this cover," McGrady told People magazine about her first cover experience. "And I was just like, ‘I want my daughter to see this one day. I want the next generation to see this. I want our generation to see this.’"
She went on to add, "My body's not what it was when I was 22. It's very different when you have kids. I have tons more stretch marks and things are a lot softer and there's a lot more cellulite, but that's OK."
McGrady is one of the most famous plus-size models to grace the Swimsuit Issue in recent years, and she always credits Sports Illustrated for giving her a place in the issue.
"They're changing the game," McGrady said. She said MJ Day, the editor-in-chief of Sports Illustrated Swimsuit, "is taking a chance and she is doing the work, and to do the work, you have to get a bit uncomfortable to make change, right? History shows that. We’ve got to get uncomfortable and step into that in order for the pendulum to swing."
During her conversation with People, McGrady recalled first meeting MJ Day when she was 22. "I was wearing leggings and a little sweater and tennis shoes, not what I would've ever imagined to go into a meeting with Sports Illustrated Swimsuit wearing."
"The moment the issue dropped, my life changed in drastic ways," she explained. "I was given this platform and this responsibility, and I remember thinking, OK — this is a blessing. This is a huge, huge gift. Do with it what you will, but do it wisely. Ever since then, and every year I've been back, I've felt a little bit more like, OK, I feel even more confident, and I feel like I'm really growing as a woman."
McGrady's Swimsuit Issue cover eight months postpartum shows that she's come a long way since she first became a mom in 2021. Shortly after giving birth to her first child, son Hunter, she shared her journey to accepting her postpartum body on Instagram.
"I’m just a girl, standing in front of a mirror, 12 days postpartum, with breast milk stains, and Depends diapers, pure exhaustion, asking herself to learn to love this new body," she began her mirror selfie's caption. "To give herself grace, to feel the gummy-ness of her new tummy, and the loose skin and remembering that this body not only created life, but housed it for 9 months, went 45 hours into labor, and is now feeding it daily all with one vessel. I feel so grateful for this body today. Leaky breasts, bloody diapers (on my end), new stretch marks, gummy tummy and all "
