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'Any child can be beautiful': Lucas Warren’s parents reflect on 'Gerber baby' experience

'You’re starting to see a lot more stories of how people with disabilities are exceeding in life. The older generation never saw that growing up.'

CALHOUN, Ga. — Lucas Warren’s parents still get a kick out of the whole experience.

“I still have people at work that will come up to me and be like, 'isn’t your son? he’s the Gerber baby, wasn’t he?'" Jason Warren, Lucas’ dad, said smiling.

It’s been about a year since Lucas stole the hearts of millions after his parents Jason and Cortney submitted his picture to Gerber.

“I entered one picture. I think you can enter up to 10. I just threw one,” Cortney recalled.

He dazzled judges and beat out thousands of entries to be crowned the 2018 Gerber baby. Lucas is the first child with Down syndrome to win the honor.

RELATED: First baby with Down syndrome wins Gerber baby of the year

“Oh my God! He won! He won! I started screaming,” Cortney remembered.

Credit: Provided

After winning, Lucas posed with Ann Turner Cook, the first-ever Gerber baby. Lucas and his family also made an appearance on the TODAY Show in New York.

“That’s just something people just don’t do every day. The experience was amazing! Very fast paced. Lucas loved it. They loved him,” Jason said.

“To this day, I still will go online and Google his name to see how many articles and videos and just look back on the adventure that we had,” he added.

RELATED: 'Gerber Baby' Lucas featured as a clue on 'Jeopardy!'

Lucas turned 3 years old this year.

“He’s a mover. He’s either zero or 100. There’s no in-between,” Cortney stated.

These days, he is keeping his parents busy - between school and therapy. While at therapy, he was approached to be the face of Specialized Pediatric Care’s brochure.

He’s also been featured in a couple of ads in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

“With Lucas’ story, everybody is doing research on Down syndrome and special needs," Jason said. "You’re starting to see a lot more stories of how people with disabilities are exceeding in life. The older generation never saw that growing up."

“Just having a child with special needs as a Gerber baby shows that it’s true, any child can be a Gerber baby. Any child can be beautiful,” Cortney added.

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First-ever Gerber baby poses with current Gerber baby, Lucas Warren

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