Sports Illustrated's famed swimsuit edition features Leyna Bloom, the first trans woman of color ever included in the feature.
Bloom, who grew up in Chicago and is Black and Filipino, that she had a specific intention and strict rules for how she wanted to appear in the shoot. “I told them: no bikinis, no strings, no thongs, no nudity,” she said. "I was going to wear a one piece, that’s what I feel most comfortable in.
We shot 12 suits that day—some flirty, some sexy, some really strong. Each one captured a different part of me."In participating, she hopes that readers will see that, “My autonomy and my anatomy are beautiful.