Top model Robyn Lawley gave birth to a daughter with partner Everest Schmidt on Thursday, Feb. 26. Baby girl Ripley Dorothy Lawley-Schmidt was born in Santa Monica, California on Robyn’s maternal grandmother’s birthday. The date is poignant due to her grandmother’s death during Lawley’s pregnancy.

Robyn Lawley, one of 2015 Sports Illustrated’s Rookies of the Year, was photographed by James Macari against the majestic backdrop of the Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming. In her interview with The Cut, the positive body-image advocate revealed that she was pregnant at the time Macari shot her. As a size 12 US, Lawley was the curviest model to ever appear in the SI Swimsuit issue.

MJ Day, assistant managing editor of Sports Illustrated, highlighted Robyn Lawley as a model, not a ‘plus size’ model, a term that Lawley is trying to change.

‘She sort of embodies the classic SI girl — she’s interesting, she’s beautiful, she has an incredible body, and I felt that she would make a great addition to the issue,’ Day says. ‘It was simple as that.’

New mom Lawley told TIME she never imagined that she would appear in the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue. ‘When I started my career 10 years ago, I had to painfully go to castings and people would look at you and say, ‘What the hell are you doing here?’… I want to be there for the regular girls who are my size.’

Robyn also reminded The Cut about the problem of designers making only small sample sizes, a reality that has major impact on fashion shoots in magazines.

I can’t get clothes for events. I’m very excluded from a lot of that, and it sucks. If designers had more sample sizes, they would make the magazines shoot size 8 on a size 8.

More Robyn Lawley editorials & features