Lauren Chan at the 2024 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue Launch Party held at the Hard Rock Cafe on May 16, 2024 in New York City. (Photo by Kristina Bumphrey/Variety via Getty Images)
Lauren Chan Becomes the First Out Lesbian Solo on the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue
Lauren Chan says her entire career is based around inclusion and representation, because she’s a plus-size, queer, Asian model. This career — which has won her Canadian fashion awards and a spot on Marie Claire’s 2023 Power List — has led her to be the first out lesbian (and she thinks possibly the first Chinese person) to have a solo cover in Sports Illustrated’s famous swimsuit issue.
As exciting as this is, to borrow a term Ziwe Fumudoh coined on the podcast Hysteria, it feels a little “sadgressive.” It’s undoubtedly something to be celebrated! I’m very happy for Lauren Chan and all the success she’s had in her career as someone with the odds stacked against her. It just feels a bit depressing that 2025 marks the first time it’s happened.
However, it’s undeniably important. As Chan herself says, her very existence and persistence at succeeding in her career contributes to “the continued dismantling of the beauty ideal — especially at a time where we are seeing a decrease in diversity on runways, in television.”
On top of being amazing representation for all of the communities she is part of, she also is an ambassador for the National Eating Disorder Association and on the advisory board for the Model Alliance. She came out as a lesbian in 2023, and is now engaged to film director Hayley Kosan, whose Instagram bio now hilariously reads, “Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Husband of the Year 2025.”
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