Meet the new Gerber baby, 7-month-old Grace

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Friday, January 23, 2015
(AP)
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Many parents claim that their babies are the cutest in the country, but Grace's parents have some proof to back that claim up.

She won a contest to become Gerber's "spokesbaby."

Grace, a 7-month-old from East Petersburg, Pa., beat out 180,000 other babies in a photo contest to become the new face of Gerber's marketing campaign, the company said in a press release Wednesday.

For winning the contest, Grace's family gets a $50,000 prize along with one year of baby food. She also has a chance to appear in a Gerber commercial.

Grace's mom, who took the stunning photo, said she hadn't realized how amazing the timing was until she looked back after the photo was taken.

"She must have taken her hands out of her mouth and posed them like that for a split second," said Grace's mom in the press release, "because I didn't even realize how cute she was posing until after I was completely done taking pictures and looking back at what I had just taken."

Among the babies Grace beat out were the winners in different age categories. Looking at those babies, it's easy to see how daunting of a task judging the contest must have been.

Seen in the photo below, they are (first row, left to right) "Birth" winner Benjamin, "Supported Sitter" winner Lilah, "Sitter" winner JP and (bottom row, left to right) "Crawler" winner Torrey, "Toddler" winner Anushri and "Toddler 2+" winner Chelce Mae.

And if you were wondering about the Gerber baby -- the one whose face has been everywhere for decades -- she is now in her late 80s. She is Ann Turner Cook, a mystery novelist and English teacher, seen here with her likeness in 2004.

AP

This is the fifth year Gerber has hosted a contest to find its spokesbaby, though we think the real winner is everyone who gets to look at all these adorable photos.