10-month-old Filipino-American is new Gerber Baby
MANILA, Philippines — Maddison "Maddie" Mendoza, a 10-month-old Filipino-American infant from Colorado in the United States, is the winner of baby food brand Gerber's 13th annual Photo Search.
With her win, Maddie becomes the Gerber Baby of 2023 and will be featured on the brand's social media channels and marketing campaigns throughout the year.
Maddie's mother Crystal submitted a photo of herself as a child and of Maddie wherein it's seen the two looked very much alike.
"I liked that there was a throwback aspect to it. I was going through my old photos and happened to find one where I was wearing a very similar outfit to what Maddie was wearing," Crystal told People magazine about entering the contest.
Crystal is a dentist while her husband Jun is a Lieutenant Colonel physician, an allergist and immunologist, in the Air Force with 16 years of military experience.
The couple are high school sweethearts and have been together for 22 years, including a nine-year long-distance relationship.
Maddie's parents are both from first-generation families from the Philippines, and both her grandfathers having served in the Navy after coming to the United States.
Crystal shared that Maddie loves hiking with her her and Jun, swim lessons, music classes, has mastered crawling, and is able to stand on her own — her top teeth have begun to show and she will soon learn to walk.
She separately told TODAY that Maddie had an adventurous palate, perfect for a Gerber Baby, although she didn't like the taste of kimchi.
Gerber also noted that Maddie was a "rainbow baby," meaning she was born after a miscarriage, stillbirth, or loss of an infant.
Apart from becoming this year's Gerber Baby, Maddie and her family received a $25,000 (P1.36 million), a year's worth of Gerber products, a new wardrobe by Gerber Childrenswear and other surprise perks from brand partners.
Gerber will also match the cash prize with a donation to Operation Homefront which supports military families like Maddie's.
The Gerber Baby legacy traces back to the very first infant Ann Turner Cook from 1928, who later became a teacher and a novelist before passing away last year aged 95.
The annual Gerber Photo Search has since looked for new Gerber Babies since 2010, with Lucas Warren being the first baby with Down syndrome selected in 2018 and last year's Isa Slish the first baby with a limb difference.
RELATED: 'She will continue to live on': Gerber pays tribute to original Gerber baby who dies at 95
