Why This Sports Illustrated Editor's Bikini Pic Is Going Viral

Every year when the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue is released, the nation goes wild for the beauties featured inside. But this year the most surprising bikini photo to garner attention isn't one of a top model - it's of the magazine's editor herself.

MJ Day goes viral. (Image: Andrew Toth/Getty Images Entertainment/Getty Images)

MJ Day, editor of the Swimsuit Issue, took the world by surprise this past Wednesday when she posed in a bikini for an Instagram video, speaking out about body positivity.

Deep.Breath. If I'm going to talk the talk I am going to walk the walk. Please consider participating. It was equally terrifying and liberating for me. Funny how I have spent my life on a beach since childhood and I have never truly felt comfortable in a swimsuit. Even at my thinnest. We need to love ourselves in the present. No matter what. I invite you all to do so. 😱🙏🏻❤#50shadesoftan Repost @womenirl with @repostapp ・・・ Introducing the #WhatIModel campaign, a partnership with @SI_Swimsuit and @healthmagazine. This year's Sport's Illustrated Swimsuit issue is the most inclusive ever and features women of various ages, backgrounds and body types. We're celebrating this vision of beauty and confidence on our feed… in our swimsuits. Because you should feel beautiful no matter what you wear, and we're ready to love our swimsuits again. Meet @mj_day, the editor of SI Swimsuit, and find out what *she* models. Then, upload your own video (in your suit) and tag it #WhatIModel & #LoveYourSwimsuit for the chance to be featured here. Stay tuned all week for inspiring messages about body confidence and authenticity. #womenirl

A post shared by MJ Day (@mj_day) on Feb 15, 2017 at 6:25am PST

“Deep. Breath. If I'm going to talk the talk I am going to walk the walk,” Day writes. “Funny how I have spent my life on a beach since childhood and I have never truly felt comfortable in a swimsuit. Even at my thinnest. We need to love ourselves in the present. No matter what. I invite you all to do so.”

Day's insistence to “talk the talk if she's going to walk the walk” and proudly don a bikini regardless of her body shape makes sense. Especially considering the direction she's been pushing the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue in recent years - to praise and be proud of bodies of all shapes and sizes.

“I've been producing the annual Swimsuit Issue for 19 years, but today I'm the one in a bathing suit, and here's why,” she says in the video. “This year's issue will showcase the widest diversity of women in SI history. Women of all ages and shapes, and from many different backgrounds.”

Day makes good on her statement, with the latest issue finally paying homage to all the beauties out there, no matter their shape, size or color - from celebrating curvy ladies with model Ashley Graham; muscular women with Aly Raisman and Simone Biles; and mature women with 63-year-old model Christie Brinkley.

The editor also urged her followers to share videos of themselves in bikinis and to speak on what they want to “model” as a collaboration with the @WomenIRL Instagram account and Health.com. The goal? To promote body confidence among women everywhere. And it's working!

We are walking the walk @mj_day! What the hell were @ja_neyney and I doing in our bikinis in a snowstorm? Watch and read below! #fuckit #💃🏻 • • • Introducing the #WhatIModelcampaign, a partnership with@SI_Swimsuit and @healthmagazine. This year's Sport's Illustrated Swimsuit issue is the most inclusive ever and features women of various ages, backgrounds and body types. We're celebrating this vision of beauty and confidence on our feed… in our swimsuits. Because you should feel beautiful no matter what you wear, and we're ready to love our swimsuits again. Then, upload your own video (in your suit) and tag it #WhatIModel & #LoveYourSwimsuit for the chance to be featured here. Stay tuned all week for inspiring messages about body confidence and authenticity. #womenirl

A post shared by Darcie Baum (@darciebaum) on Feb 15, 2017 at 7:43am PST

“We want to celebrate strength, beauty and more, so we want to know: What do you model?” she asked. “So I'll kick us off. I model determination. I'm determined to get out the message that there is not a singular definition of beauty.”

Amen, sister.

What Do YOU Think?

Do you think the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue is finally celebrating women properly? Would you take this bikini challenge? Do you love your body? Is MJ Day brave for posting this picture? Let us know in the comments.