It’s still just the middle of March but Sports Illustrated decided to drop a little summer heat early and give readers a sneak preview of the gorgeous models lined up for this year’s Swimsuit Issue.
Some in the 2021 issue are familiar Maxim faves like Kate Bock and Lais Ribeiro. There are some beautiful new faces as well, including rookies Tanaye White and Natalie Mariduena.
The models’ backgrounds are particularly interesting this year—like Maggie Rawlins, who, as the New York Post reported, “went from COVID nurse to bikini queen.”
Rawlins, a 28-year-old registered nurse, was already modeling when the coronavirus pandemic overtook the world in March 2020, but told the paper that since she “had the skill set as a nurse” and felt “it was a responsibility more than anything else,” she “hit the ground running.”
However, Rawlins wanted one thing from her moment in the white-hot SI Swimsuit spotlight—that people think more about healthcare workers like her still on the front lines fighting COVID-19. “I want to stress that I was only there for three weeks,” she told the Post, “which is nothing compared to the sacrifices” full-time workers have made. “COVID hasn’t stopped for them.”
Other models have backgrounds that prove beauty and brains can combine in equal measure, like Tanaye White, who won the the 2020 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit model search. The 29-year-old graduated from prestigious Georgetown University and worked in defense and aerospace before moving into modeling.
In 2021, the list is not complete without a social-media influencer and for this issue, rookie Natalie Mariduena fits the bill. At 24 she heads branding for Dispo, an Instagram competitor founded by influencer David Dobrik, and has a considerable social following of her own, with 4.1 million fans on the ‘gram.
This is far from the complete list of models we’ll see—Sports Illustrated will continue introducing them throughout the month of March.
Check out selections from these models’ Instagrams below and look for the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue when it is released on July 20.
