Sports Illustrated Swimsuit model Christen Harper reveals body image struggles
Sports Illustrated swimsuit model Christen Harper reveals she didn’t go to pool parties as a teen because she was too self-conscious about her body.
The 29-year-old, who was crowned co-Rookie Of The Year alongside Katie Austin in 2022, has opened up to Yahoo life about how her early modeling career, which started when she was nine years old, influenced her.
She returns to publication for the 2023 SI Swimsuit Issue, with Martha Stewart, Megan Fox, Kim Petras and Brooks Nader landing the four covers.
Speaking of her struggles with body confidence, Christen, from California, said, “I didn’t even go to a pool party in high school because I was too concerned about how my body looked. So it’s funny now that I model bikinis all over the world.
Sports Illustrated swimsuit model Christen Harper reveals she didn’t go to pool parties as a teen because she was too self-conscious about her body
“It was my biggest fear then because it was a constant comparison.”
Christen, who also recently co-designed a bikini for B Swim, said she modeled until she was “14 or 15” before she was “measured out.”
The model told Yahoo Life that she was eventually dropped by her agency because she “didn’t fit the sample anymore.”
“I remember the times they cut open the back of my pants on set. The back of my jeans was just wide open because I couldn’t button them up. From the front, you know, it looked like the jeans fit. That’s so embarrassing,” Christen added.
She said her experiences in the industry changed the way she felt about her body and made her think it was “the most important thing” about her.
And things didn’t get any easier when she hit puberty and she was a “bit rounder” than her peers.
“My whole life revolved around if I could lose just a little bit of weight I’d be happy,” said Christen, who is engaged to NFL star Jared Goff.
But things started to change for the young Christian with the emergence of Kate Upton, who was considered representative of a shift in body diversity at the time.
She returns to publication for the 2023 SI Swimsuit Issue, with Martha Stewart, Megan Fox, Kim Petras and Brooks Nader landing the four covers.
Christen is engaged to NFL star Jared Goff (pictured), who plays for the Detroit Lions
She was crowned co-Rookie Of The Year alongside Katie Austin (pictured left) in 2022
She said Kate’s confidence changed the way she saw her own body, but when she started modeling again to pay for college, she still wasn’t in a good place with the way she looked.
And it didn’t help that agencies kept telling her she was “too big,” so Christen tried to “shrink” herself so she could get a job.
Sports Illustrated Swimsuit unveiled their highly anticipated covers on Monday, with Martha, 81, flaunting her stunning figure as the oldest woman ever to appear on the magazine’s front cover.
The businesswoman – who called posing for the magazine “historic” at her age – showed off her amazing physique during the shoot by donning 10 different bathing suits that showed off her body in full.
But things started to change for the young Christian with the emergence of Kate Upton, who was considered representative of a shift in body diversity at the time.
The 2023 SI Swimsuit Issue – featuring Martha Stewart (pictured), Megan Fox, Kim Petras and Brooks Nader on all four covers – will be out May 18
One photo in the magazine — which hits newsstands May 18 — showed her in a red bathing suit with a plunging neckline, while another had the 81-year-old smiling at the camera in a white bathing suit and an orange scarf.
Another picture showed Martha lying across the beach in a brown swimsuit with ruffles and an oversized straw hat, while a fourth showed the TV personality in the water wearing a silver zippered bathing suit and huge white sunglasses .
Reflecting on the experience, Martha explained that she “doesn’t think about age very much,” but admitted that being a part of the magazine at 81 was definitely important to her.
“When I heard I was going to be on the cover of Sports Illustrated Swimsuit I was like, ‘Oh, that’s pretty good, I’m going to be the oldest person I’ve ever seen on a Sports Illustrated cover,'” she said.
“And I don’t think much about age, but I thought this is kind of historical.”