'Curviest model ever' Hunter McGrady posts 'fearless' swimsuit photo: 'Cellulite is cool too'
Supermodel Hunter McGrady is making 2020 “fearless” with a swimsuit post that amplifies her curves — and her cellulite.
The 26-year-old beauty, once named Sports Illustrated’s ‘Curviest Model Ever,’ was true to form on Instagram Thursday, posing on the beach in a black one-piece swimsuit. “Cus cellulite is cool too bodies are meant to change with you, move a little different and look different,” she wrote. “We’re so predisposed as humans to want to go with the grain and change ourselves to fit inside a pristine box in order to be accepted. Real change happens outside of our comfort zones. So many of us let Fear hold us back from doing things we love or loving ourselves because we think we won’t measure up.”
Defining fear as “False Evidence Appearing Real,” the model added, “We get into our heads and allow fear to control us and tell us what we lack and what we aren’t. Let’s make sure to make this year a fearless one.”
McGrady has started 2020 with optimism and confidence. Anticipating her fourth appearance in the upcoming Sports Illustrated Swimsuit issue, shot in Bali, she recently posted a throwback outtake from last year’s Costa Rican shoot.
And in a November preview, McGrady posed in a black-and-gold bikini. “Can’t wait for you guys to see this issue,” she wrote on Instagram. “Keep on rocking that body of yours and remember You are ENOUGH as you are RIGHT. NOW.”
The model, who is still a newlywed — in June, she married Brian Keyes, whom she reportedly met on Snapchat after dating for less than two years — also graced the fall issue of The Knot. McGrady told Good Morning America that owning the cover as a plus-size woman was secondary to how her image was presented.
"My whole platform is inclusivity and there's nothing on [the cover] that's like, 'This is a plus-size model.' It's a model on the cover of a magazine," McGrady told GMA in July. "My whole message is promoting that and getting that narrative out there that we should all feel seen and all feel beautiful regardless of our size."
McGrady has stood for that since she stopped dieting as a young model. At 15-years-old and a size 4, she was told to lose weight by industry professionals, and in 2017, she shared with People that she was once sent home from a modeling job after being told, “We didn’t realize you were this big.”
McGrady explained, “And I was so upset, and so livid, that I was getting picked at, already, at just a young 16 years old.”
The model’s fans are on her team — McGrady’s “inspiring” swimsuit photo was liked more than 12,000 times. “You’re amazing!!!” one follower wrote. “And I needed to hear this.”
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