With the rise of the
body confidence movement on social media platforms such as Instagram, women are now beginning to take more ownership of their body's than ever before. While it may come as a surprise to some, the notion of female empowerment and embracing our flaws has now made it's way to Sports Illustrated. Yes, Sports Illustrated is now using un-edited images on its cover stars. But, more than this, it is now using its platform to spread a message of female empowerment and ownership.
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Hunter McGrady is a six foot, size 16 model who has been chosen to appear in 2018's edition of Sports Illustrated and she, along with an all-female crew, claim that the issue is set to break boundaries by featuring un-edited photos for the first time.
The edition will feature 36 models, of which five are mothers, five are famous athletes, four are published authors, 12 are rookies, four are returning models and six were model search contestants. Danielle Herrington is the lucky woman who has been chosen to be the cover girl and in doing so, becomes the third black women behind Tyra Banks and Beyonce to do it.
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The cast is the most diverse that the publication has ever used and features two
plus-size models: Katie Wasley and Hunter McGrady. For these two women, the shoot represents something much more than getting that perfect shot.
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"I can remember the first time that I saw a plus-size model on the cover of a magazine," Wasley tells Bustle. "I was 18 years old and completely insecure. Even just seeing Robyn Lowly... on the cover of this magazine just honestly filled me with so much confidence and joy. I felt so empowered, and if I can be a part of that movement and just inspire one other girl to feel that way, then that's amazing."
Wasley is featured in the swimsuit section of the magazine, but it's her and McGrady's photos in the In Her Own Words photoshoot that are breaking boundaries. The photos, which are taken in black and white and feature the models in the nude, are unedited and the first of their kind to be in the publication.
The In Her Own Words section allows the all-star cast of women like Aly Raisman, Paulina Porizkova, Wasley, and McGrady, to tell their story and write words of empowerment across their bodies.
"We each had the ability and the range to do what we wanted with the placement of the words on our bodies," McGrady tells Bustle. "[This year] meant so much more to me, because it was very personal this time around. It wasn't just beautiful photos going into a magazine. It was a very personal memoir almost."
"I was very careful choosing my words, because words have the ability to make or break down somebody," McGrady says. "They can either lift somebody up to tear somebody down."
Wasley says that to think of the words that adorned her body, she thought back to her experiences and the feelings that she had gone through when trying to learn to love her body.
"I dug into how I used to feel about my body when I was quite insecure compared to how I feel now, and how I got there from when I saw Robyn Lawley on the cover," Wasley says about her body confidence journey. "Words that I want women to start using to describe themselves."
Despite the magazine using it's most diverse cast yet, there are still some sections of society that are not represented. But, as McGrady says, this issue does represent some form of a step in the right direction.
"Listen, we're here and we're trying," McGrady says. "You have to give us props for that."
Well done to these ladies for trying to change the often misogynistic nature of magazines such as Sports Illustrated - a step in the right direction is better than a step in the wrong one.
