SI LifeStyle

Lauren Chan Shares ‘Canadian Pride,’ Reflects on Response to SI Swimsuit Rookie Announcement

The model and former fashion editor makes her debut with the magazine this May.

Ananya Panchal

Lauren Chan

Lauren Chan.

SI Swimsuit’s newest 2023 rookie Lauren Chan is making major moves as the magazine’s first plus-size, queer rookie and everyone is proud of her—including her home country, Canada.

Chan, who was born in Toronto, was featured on a recent broadcast with Etalk, and interviewed by Tyrone Edwards and Elaine Lui. The former Glamour fashion editor shared a clip of the newscast on Instagram.

“CANADA! 🚨 I’m beyond honoured to be this week’s top story on one of my favorite Canadian TV shows,” she captioned the post. “Thank you, @mr1loveto and @laineygossip for having me on to talk all things @si_swimsuit and inclusion. Feeling all the Canadian pride! 🇨🇦💥.”

Lui introduced the Henning clothing brand founder and asked how she’s doing with the outpour of support. 

“Thank you so much for having me,” Chan began. “Well, this is completely surreal. It is starting to sink in. We worked on this for a few months and yesterday when everything went live, I was finally able to hear the responses and all of the positive feedback makes it all feel really real.”

The former Vogue writer admitted that she didn’t quite manifest a spot in the magazine, or even anticipate getting this far.

“I can’t say that this exactly was on my vision board. That’s because I spent a lot of my career behind the camera,” Chan explained. “I think that the one through line that every chapter of my career has had is making sure that I am working to make women who have felt excluded by fashion, because of their size or physical attributes, feel included and equal and powerful. And to be honest, I [can’t] think of a better magazine than Sports Illustrated Swimsuit to do that with.”

Edwards asked Chan, who identifies as gay, how she decided to come out to the world in a personal essay along with her SI Swimsuit reveal. 

“I actually don’t think I chose the moment, it just landed on my desk after a year of working on coming out and then a year of getting divorced and I decided to go for it,” she explained. “A platform with such reach and ability to change the way we see people in this culture could make a great change at a pivotal time.”

Meet Lauren Chan—read the 2023 SI Swimsuit rookie’s full feature profile here.

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Ananya Panchal
ANANYA PANCHAL

Ananya Panchal is a writer on the Lifestyle and Trending News team for SI Swimsuit, where she covers fashion, beauty, pop culture and the internet’s favorite personalities and trends. She joined the brand in 2022 after roles at Bustle, the San Francisco Chronicle and the TODAY Show. Panchal loves to write about fashion in all its forms—from standout runway moments and evolving street style to the best accessories to elevate each season’s wardrobe (she rarely goes anywhere without a stack of jewelry and a coffee in hand). A self-proclaimed beauty fanatic, she’s always on the hunt for must-have products and loves breaking down viral trends. Her favorite series at the moment is spotlighting female founders and the stories behind the brands they’ve built—especially those shaping the future of fashion, wellness and tech. She is based between New York City and San Francisco and, when she’s not writing, can be found rewatching One Tree Hill, playing sudoku, trying new restaurants or ranking her favorite Disney Channel Original Movies. She holds a bachelor’s degree in communications and journalism with a minor in criminal justice from Boston University.

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