Chef Molly Baz Is Back on Billboards in Times Square — and Normalizing the Conversation Around Combo Feeding (Exclusive)

"Everybody's gotta eat," the campaign's tagline reads

Molly Baz wants to normalize the conversation around combo feeding — and to do so, she's making her return to Times Square.

The celebrity chef, 36, who made waves last year after a billboard of her exposed pregnant belly was taken down in Times Square, spoke with PEOPLE exclusively about her new partnership with Bobbie, a U.S.-made baby formula company.

Baz and Bobbie have teamed up to create a brand new billboard that went live in Times Square on Tuesday, Oct. 15. The ad shows Baz breastfeeding her baby son Gio, whom she welcomed this past summer with husband Ben Willett, and holding a bottle of baby formula in her hand.

"Everybody's gotta eat," the tagline reads, describing Baz as a chef, author, mom and combo feeder.

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Related: Celebrity Chef Molly Baz Welcomes First Baby with Husband Ben Willett: 'We Did It'

"I've been pretty nervous for the last day or so, not because my titties are out in public, but more because I know that even this conversation, which is a slightly different but adjacent one, is also fraught in a different way," Baz says, referencing her first billboard from this past spring.

"Not only is it putting a breastfeeding woman back on a billboard for all to see, but it's also addressing this conversation of formula versus breastfeeding and what's right for your baby," she continues. "So, there's two really sort of heavy conversations happening at the exact same time."

Baz goes on to say that the reception to the new billboard has been pretty amazing, noting that she just didn't know what to expect from the public.

"In general, ever since last spring, I've really adopted this 'I don't give a f---' attitude, because I feel like there needs to be more of that," Baz shares.

"And if I don't do it, who else is going to? I'm so proud of my pregnancy journey, and my breastfeeding journey, and now my choice to introduce formula. It is right for me. I stand by it. I'm not ashamed of it, and I want other women to feel that empowerment as well."

The campaign has many layers — not only are Baz and Bobbie pushing back against the censorship the new mom faced this past spring, and picturing a breastfeeding woman in an ad, but the two are normalizing the conversation around formula feeding and combo feeding.

"People will feel more confident if they know what they're feeding their baby," Laura Modi, CEO of Bobbie, tells PEOPLE. "We recently did a poll to show over 80% of parents cannot name three ingredients in their baby formula."

"If you can't name and talk about and know what you are feeding your baby, you're not going to have the confidence you need. I think between Molly, obviously being a big spokesperson and a foodie and chef, and also being able to build confidence on what a baby eats, is huge."

Baz agrees, adding that there can be a "weird disconnect" for parents who see formula as a "science project."

"I keep coming up against this in parenting in general, that if you just remember that your baby is a human, just like you are, it kind of helps to connect the dots around what you're doing," she says. "Feeding a baby a bottle with powder that might not look like anything you know, but knowing that you've chosen a formula that has ingredients that you trust and are comfortable feeding your child kind of helps remind you that it's food."

"They're just eating," she stresses. "I think one thing that's really helped me relate to the idea of giving my baby formula is just remembering as we said, everyone has to eat. Formula is just a powder that turns into milk. A human needs to eat food. A baby is a human. I am a human."

Above all else, Modi tells PEOPLE that she hopes others see their campaign and feel inspired and uplifted to make choices for their kids that best suit them.

"I think the one hope we have is that [the campaign] then encourages people to feed however they want, wherever they want, and also have the same attitude of not giving two Fs in the same way Molly does," Modi says.

"I remember when the billboard got taken down and I would say viscerally as a mother, but also as a female founder, I was pissed. I think every woman out there just felt like the injustices of everything we deal with, this was symbolic of it," she continues. "In many ways, I don't think the chapter was closed and the reaction that we've [been getting] I think is every woman, new mother out there who's just kind of clapping back at that moment as well."

Thinking back to this past spring's billboard, Baz remembers realizing that the censorship "wasn't a fluke," but tells PEOPLE that she's ultimately grateful for the experience.

"All of a sudden, I had to grapple with what it all meant," Baz says of the censorship. "And that moment and the billboard being taken down just sort of propelled me into the center of this conversation that I consequently realized I'm really passionate about."

"I'm kind of in a weird way grateful that it happened because I think it actually brought way more awareness to a conversation that deserves attention than it would have otherwise had it just gone up and gone unnoticed," Baz shares.

"In a twisted way, it was kind of the best-case scenario because clearly, there's a lot of work to do around the conversation of a woman's body and when it is deemed beautiful, sexy, appropriate for the public eye, and I don't think I realized just how far away we are from where we need to be until that moment."

As she goes through the many chapters of motherhood, Baz says she's open to weighing in on other parenting debates as they come up.

"The feeding conversation, which started back in April, I think we'll continue and we'll see how that evolves, but I am 100% on board, willing and fired up to keep standing up for what I believe in as a mother, which is not a position or stance I could have predicted I would be in," Baz shares.

"I think a few years ago, if you had asked me if this would ever be me and this would ever be the conversation I would be in, I would've said, 'Hell no,' because you just can't feel it until you're in it," she continues.

"It remains to be seen what the next thing is because I'll know it when I'm in it and I'll feel it and I'll know that something needs to be said."

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