Connecticut mom, 58, hopes to become Sports Illustrated's oldest swimsuit model
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Jodi Harrison-Bauer is trying to fulfill a lifelong dream.
The 58-year-old Connecticut mother-of-two adult daughters hopes to become the oldest model to don a swimsuit in Sports Illustrated's iconic swimsuit issue.
According to New Haven Register, Harrison-Bauer said modeling in the magazine will her "share who I am."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}“Whether I’m chosen or not, I’m doing this as another way to share who I am and encourage others along the way that it’s not too late to try something new,” she told the outlet in an interview published on Thursday.
“I’m 58, and I’ve never felt so confident in myself.”
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Harrison-Bauer, who runs a fitness studio in Branford, said she is attending an open casting call in Miami even though many of the women auditioning will be much younger than her.
“I saw there were no specific age categories,” she admitted. “That was my loophole to go for it.”
SPORTS ILLUSTRATED SWIMSUIT MODEL HALIMA ADEN MAKES HISTORY
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Harrison-Bauer is no stronger to posing almost naked. She's a two-time World Fitness America and World Fitness Universe champion and exercises multiple times a week by mixing up cardio and strength training.
She hopes her experience and story will help women “break out of the box society loves to put us in."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"Sports Illustrated" made headlines this year by featuring Tyra Banks on the cover. She was the first African American to grace the cover in 1996. She posed this year at age 45 and became the magazine's oldest cover star.
And supermodel Paulina Porizkova was praised for her photoshoot inside the magazine, which she did at 54 years old.
"When MJ [Day, the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit editor] sent me the pictures she was like, 'So we're not going to do any retouching, just like on the minor, minor things like moles and stuff,'" she admitted on "Good Morning America" at the time. "I was like 'gulp,' and it's like well, I look good for 54."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"I'm going to give a lot of credit to MJ Day from Sports Illustrated," she added.
"When she got into her position she really started expanding the notion in Sports Illustrated — that's where people go to see beautiful young women — and she really started expanding the idea that it's not just models size 2 to 4 that are pretty, but hey, they could be size 10 to 20," the stunner added.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Porizkova made her Sports Illustrated debut in 1983 at age 17.