Sports Illustrated Put A Model In A Burkini On The Cover And We Are All For It!

That we don’t live in a perfect world is a fact. The world in general, lacks too many things to be ever called perfect, or close to it for that matter. Lack of representation, being one of the many things that contribute to such imbalance.

We see enough and more things in media and start to believe this is the absolute truth. The way everyone looks. What everyone wears. So when we see anything different, we are startled. Confused, almost. But it shouldn’t be that way. In fact, it should be the norm. Except it isn’t.

Halima Aden makes history as the first model to wear a hijab and burkini for Sports Illustrated Swimsuit: https://t.co/8WFD4hHmiH. pic.twitter.com/OsBthnjoLY

— Sports Illustrated Swimsuit (@SI_Swimsuit) April 29, 2019

Today Sports Illustrated launched its May Issue with the model Halima Aden on the cover, not clad in a bikini, but styled exclusively in a burkini and our faith in humanity has been restored. I know, we will wait for you to pick your jaw off the floor.

The twenty-one-year old, was born in Kenya and never imagined a life where glamour of fashion could meet cultural diversity. Of course, mainsteam imageery has always seen a lack in representation of women like her, as she mentioned in an interview with Sports Illustrated, “Growing up in the States, I never felt represented, because I could never flip through a magazine and see a girl who was wearing a hijab”. She sought out to break the norms very young. She is known to have been the first participant ever to participate in the Miss Minnesota USA Beauty Pageant in a hijab.

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bw3Vod9h8NZ/?utm_source=ig_embed

Today, she became the first model to come on the cover of Sports Illustrated in a burkini and her words in a caption “Don’t change yourself. Change the game”, couldn’t be truer. This issue and the step of moving towards a more culturally accepting and tolerating world, is a need of the hour. This is a movement that’s starting to catch up.  Not just by SI but many others in the past like Vogue Arabia  smashed stereotypes by putting three gorgeous Hijabi women on their April Cover.

Finally, the influence that fashion holds over the world is not just being recognised but being tapped into, and we are all for it!