A Sports Illustrated model is making headlines after she walked the runway with her “everyday” accessory: her own daughter.
Mara Martin, a 30-year-old from Michigan, strutted down the runway at the Sports Illustrated Swim Search fashion show on Sunday during Miami Swim Week, but it was not her gold bikini that had the crowd cheering. Martin, a mother to a 5-month-old, walked the runway while breastfeeding her daughter.
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“I can’t believe I am waking up to headlines with me and my daughter in them for doing something I do every day. It is truly so humbling and unreal to say the least. I’m so grateful to be able to share this message and hopefully normalize breastfeeding and also show others that women CAN DO IT ALL!” Martin wrote on Instagram.
“But to be honest, the real reason I can’t believe it is a headline is because it shouldn’t be a headline,” she continued. “My story of being a mother and feeding her while walking is just that. Last night there are far more deserving headlines that our world should see. One woman is going to boot camp in two weeks to serve our country, one woman had a mastectomy, and another is a cancer survivor, 2x paralympic gold medalist, as well as a mother herself. Those are the stories that our world should be discussing!!!!”
Martin went on to thank MJ Day, the editor of Sports Illustrated‘s swimsuit issue, and everyone else who worked behind the scenes to make her runway walk possible.
“Because of you, my daughter is going to grow up in a better world, where she will always feel this way!!!!!! Lastly, to every single woman that rocked that runway with me. Be proud. I know I am of you! You all have inspired me in ways unimaginable. I love you all!!!” she concluded.
Martin’s walk comes on the heels of headlines of women being shamed for breastfeeding in public. In January, a woman in North Dakota was asked to leave a Chick-fil-A restaurant when an employee said that her breastfeeding her daughter in public was considered to be “indecency.”
Celebrities have even been on the receiving end of breastfeeding shame. Adam Levine’s wife Behati Prinsloo faced backlash when she posted a picture of herself holding two breast pumps to her chest, and Mila Kunis opened up to Vanity Fair about the judgmental stares she gets when she breastfeeds in public stating that “it took us a little back because people actually looked at us in a shameful [way], and we were like, ‘Oh my God,’ because it’s so not a sexual act.”
