Brooklyn-based model and entrepreneur Lauren Chan is making waves, as well as being photographed in them.
In a forest green Cult Gaia bikini, hand on hip, knee-deep in Bermuda’s turquoise waters, the 34-year-old made history Tuesday as the first out lesbian to appear solo on the cover of Sports Illustrated Swimsuit.
“I tried to bare my soul — be funny, truthful and vulnerable. I was very proud of that moment,” Chan told Page Six in an exclusive interview.
Chan took a plunge in 2023, announcing her divorce from her husband on Valentine’s Day. Later that year, she came out as gay in a casting tape for SI Swim.
Tamara Beckwith
“I decided to write an essay about this whole process [of coming out] hoping people, perhaps, would see themselves in my story. I didn’t have many examples to reference when I was going through it,” Chan told Page Six, of reconciling with her own sexuality, and becoming more comfortable in her own skin.
Her honesty and relatability nabbed her the SI Rookie spot, for the 2023 issue, in which she posed in a yellow bikini on the beach in the Dominican Republic.
At the time, her career was thriving. She was a successful plus-size model and fashion editor at Glamour magazine, but admitted she was hiding from her true self.
“Stress and aimlessness drove me to start therapy, where I slowly uncovered my true self,” Chan wrote in her essay of untangling repressed feelings in her adulthood.
“I knew that staying closeted would only hurt me – and my husband – in the long run, so out I came,” she wrote.
In 2024, she graced SI Swim again in a shoot in Mexico. That year, she announced her relationship with film director Hayley Kosan – who adorably refers to herself as “Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Husband of the Year 2025” in her Instagram bio. The pair got engaged earlier this year.
Now, Canada-born Chan has landed the coveted cover — and she’s celebrating every minute of it.
“I am more grounded in who I am and what I believe. The message I want to share is … I am trying to be more imperfect and more honest,” Chan told Page Six.
Her return to the the glossy wasn’t met with only applause. Chan told The Post she used her 2025 essay for the SI Swim issue to clap back at a hater who tried to belittle her achievement in a negative comment on social media.
“Who are they even doing this for anymore?? Women??” she recalled the nasty comment saying.
“The answer, I’m proud to report, is women,” she wrote in the essay, championing history-making women the issue has trumpeted, like Martha Stewart, who in 2023 became the oldest woman to ever appear on the cover of the magazine, at 81.
“This brand is to inspire women. To be anything and everything that it celebrates,” Chan told The Post.
Chan also gave a shout out to transgender singer Kim Petra’s 2023 SI cover along with NCAA gymnast Olivia Dunne, 22 – the top-earning female college athlete in the country – who also landed her own 2025 cover in an animal print bikini.
Chan broke into the fashion industry on a whim. She grew up playing elite level basketball, going on to play at the University of Western Ontario in Canada in 2008. During that time, her appendix ruptured, sidelining her time on the court.
“With all that spare time, I started fashion writing; from there, things snowballed. I started to intern in Toronto for a fashion magazine,” Chan recalled.
After graduating college, Chan moved to New York City, where she signed with Ford modeling agency to begin plus-size modeling.
“This was before the size-inclusivity movement. Eventually, I decided to start writing about plus-size modeling, which turned into writing about size inclusion and body positivity,” Chan, who has worked with designers like Vera Wang, Valentino and Christian Soriano among others.
“I started making a difference. I found my purpose,” Chan said, of making women who look like her feel seen.
In the age of Ozempic and similar medications being used as a quick fix for weight loss, Chan says it’s more important than ever that she fosters a safe space for body positivity.
“There’s certainly been a regression in size inclusion in the past few years,” she acknowledges.
“It’s important to focus on the outlets and the people and the brands that are standing by their ethos of inclusivity. We still exist – I’m a size 12 to 14 on this cover,” she told Page Six.
She also encouraged people not to fixate on what they see on social media, online and in advertisements and to concentrate on themselves firstly and mostly.
“Everyone’s journey with their body is extremely personal, and I am an advocate for mental health first. Every time I have a thought about not liking my body, I genuinely ask myself, whose idea that is.
“Most of the time, it’s not mine. It’s an idea that I absorbed through thousands of ads I see a day,” Chan said.
Photos: Tamara Beckwith/NY Post; Stylist: Margot Zamet; Hair: T. Cooper using ECRU New York; Makeup: Markphong Tram using Valentino Beauty; Stylist Assistant: Liz Wentworth; Location: World Spa, 1571 McDonald Ave, Brooklyn NY.