Kim Kardashian Makes Her ‘Sports Illustrated Swimsuit’ Cover Debut

Kim Kardashian is taking over the cover of Sports Illustrated Swimsuit. The reality star shared a photo of her cover on Monday in which he donned a Skims bikini, naturally. She isn’t Sports Illustrated Swimsuit‘s only cover star for the issue, as the other cover models include Ciara, Maye Musk, and Yumi Nu. 

Kardashian posed for the cover in a nude Skims bikini, a look that she completed with matching gloves. She posed for a series of shots for the magazine, including one in which she dives into the water and another that features her posing on an ATV while wearing a metallic one-piece. On Instagram, Kardashian recounted how her Sports Illustrated Swimsuit cover came to be. She explained that they shot the photos back in January while in the Dominican Republic, one of her “favorite places in the world.” According to the beauty mogul, it was “so hard to keep this cover a secret.” Kardashian described being on the cover as “an honor and a dream.”

In addition to posing for the magazine, Kardashian also wrote a letter to her younger self for the issue. Her message focuses on life in the spotlight and what she’s learned throughout the years about her celebrity status. “It’s easy to say to just ignore the criticism, but another thing you’ll learn is that at some point it will click in your head that it’s not about you anymore,” she wrote. “It’s about family. It’s about helping other people. For years you’ll be putting yourself out there… But you’re going to become a more private person and you’re going to come to realize that the way to get your story out there—the actual narrative, the truth—isn’t by engaging but by doing.”

Kardashian posed for Sports Illustrated Swimsuit along with 28 other women including Catfish‘s Kamie Crawford and former cover model Camille Kosek. MJ Day, the editor in chief of Sports Illustrated Swimsuit, released a statement about the latest issue and specifically touched upon their decision about who to feature on the cover. Day’s statement read, “The journey we’ve been on — to break out of the mold the world put us in — may sound familiar. It’s certainly familiar to the women we’ve chosen to be our cover models: Maye, Ciara, Yumi, Kim. At course, Kim, no stranger to the world’s judgment, continues to live proudly, authentically and unapologetically through the noise.”