How Hunter McGrady Is Changing the Narrative Around Body Image

The SI Swimsuit Issue cover star opened up about prioritizing positive self-talk around her children.

Hunter McGrady was photographed by Yu Tsai in Mexico. / Yu Tsai/Sports Illustrated

Hunter McGrady recently sat down with Oprah Daily to talk about her glamorous SI Swimsuit Issue cover, and the conversation also included several gems regarding body image.

“I really think that we are getting past reducing women to just their bodies,” she stated. “And I’m hoping that one day, we get to a place where we see a woman on a cover of a magazine and we get to talk about her accomplishments and talk about the kind of woman she is and the kind of woman that this world gets to experience.”

McGrady, a proud mom of two, also shared that she made a “vow” once she became a mother to speak positively about her body in the presence of her children.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Oprah Daily (@oprahdaily)

“Because anything that we hear from home becomes a part of the fabric of our being,” she explained. “It starts with us. I think that there’s a really big opportunity here to change the narrative and the world’s watching.”

The 31-year-old model and podcast host and her husband, Brian Keys, welcomed a son named Hudson in 2021, followed by their daughter, Ava, last spring. McGrady famously posed for the SI Swimsuit Issue six months postpartum after welcoming her baby boy.

“I want to put on a swimsuit no matter what my body looks like and show women who are out there that just because we’re moms, it doesn’t mean that we’re not sexy anymore,” she stated at the time. “It doesn’t mean that we are less than. Like we can [still] rock a swimsuit.”