Sailor Brinkley Cook says she would be in Sports Illustrated again, with Ashley Graham
She’s supermodel Christie Brinkley’s youngest daughter, but Sailor Brinkley Cook is making a name for herself as a model and recent Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue star.
Yahoo Lifestyle caught up with the 20-year-old at the Who’s That Girl tween beauty line launch party in New York, and she admits that her mom still treats her like a “2-year-old,” snapping photos at the most inopportune times. “I did a fashion show in Cannes recently, and I don’t do runway [modeling], so I always get scared when I have to do it. During rehearsal, my mom was running around taking photos [of me] among the professional fashion models recently,” says Brinkley Cook of the embarrassing moment. “I was that girl with my ‘stage mom,’ but she loves to take photos of me all the time.”
She may not be a grownup in her famous mom’s eyes, but the rising star says she doesn’t feel like a little girl anymore. “I think that doing Sports Illustrated really gave me this confidence in my body and myself as a woman,” she says. “I had to be proud of my body and say ‘This is me’ and ‘I’m posing in a bathing suit because I want to do it.’”
Brinkley Cook calls the experience empowering and says she supports the message that the diverse issue sends. “It’s been good to be in a magazine that’s not just about one body type of one type of girl anymore,” she explains. “I love the message it’s been sending. It’s diverse, which is awesome, and I would love to do it again.”
Asked who she’d share her second SI shoot with, Brinkley Cook doesn’t hesitate: “Obviously, Ashley Graham!” she says. “I’m obsessed with her! She’s just everything. She’s so confident, powerful, and strong.”
The 2016 SI model made history with her now-iconic cover, and Brinkley Cook looks up to Graham because of that and more. “She’s the type of model I want to be — business-savvy, serious, but hilarious,” she says. “I love that she never apologizes for who she is, which is a message I want to send too.”
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