St. Cloud, MN’s Halima Aden is 1st Woman to Wear Hijab & Burkini in SI Swimsuit Issue

St. Cloud, Minnesota’s Halima Aden is the first model to pose for Sports Illustrated’s Swimsuit issue wearing a hijab and burkini.

“Growing up in The States, I never really felt represented because I never could flip through a magazine and see a girl who was wearing a hijab,” Aden explained.

Aden was born in a refugee in Kenya where she lived for seven years. Then her family moved to Minnesota.

It’s not the first time she’s making history. Aden was the first woman to wear a hijab and burkini at the Miss Minnesota Pageant three years ago. The model is also St. Cloud Apollo High School’s first Muslim Homecoming Queen and the first student senator of Somali descent at St. Cloud State.

“I keep thinking [back] to six-year-old me who, in this same country, was in a refugee camp,” Halima said in the announcement from Sports Illustrated. “So to grow up to live the American dream [and] to come back to Kenya and shoot for SI in the most beautiful parts of Kenya–I don’t think that’s a story that anybody could make up.”