Lauren Chan has completed lots in her versatile profession. Along with being a former Glamour editor, the size-inclusivity advocate launched a clothes model and have become a profitable plus-size mannequin. However what’s occurring this week is one thing she admittedly did not see coming: She is the latest Sports activities Illustrated mannequin, and he or she’s celebrating by popping out within the Swimsuit Problem.
In keeping with a press launch, Chan is the primary overtly queer plus-size Sports activities Illustrated Rookie. (“Rookie” is what they name first-time Swimsuit Problem fashions.) However remarkably, the difficulty serves Chan’s announcement that she’s a lesbian — solely these closest to her knew of her what she calls a “late” coming-out earlier than this.
Chan penned an unreserved editorial for the difficulty referred to as “How I Got here Out, Acquired Divorced, and Landed in SI Swimsuit” — and it actually does cowl all that and extra, together with parts of her journey as a plus-size mannequin and the way the pandemic led her to remedy and consequent revelations.
“In my early classes, I found that one thing in my psychological code had brought about me to repress my emotions, and subsequently, my sexuality,” she writes. “When it turned simple that I felt completely drawn to girls, I knew I needed to inform my husband.”
It could appear ironic to come back out as a lesbian in what’s traditionally been thought of one of the vital male-gaze-y publications, however Chan sees it as the proper alternative to assist proceed transferring the Sports activities Illustrated Swimsuit Problem in a refreshing new path. “Right here seems like the best place to rejoice my laborious fought delight, relate to folks in my place, and maybe change some individuals’s view of the queer group,” she writes.
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