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Remi Bader is celebrating her debut as a Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Rookie in the 2026 issue, an accomplishment she hoped would happen for a long time
The influencer, 31, spoke to PEOPLE about how far her self-confidence and body image have come in the past few years at the issue launch party on Thursday, May 14, in New York City
Earlier this week, Bader posted an emotional Instagram caption expressing how “proud” she is to see her body in Sports Illustrated
Comparing her present mindset to past attitudes, Remi Bader is feeling amazing as she debuts as a Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Rookie in the 2026 issue.
Earlier this week, the influencer celebrated the accomplishment with an emotional Instagram photo from her SI shoot, which sees her kneeling on the beach in an azure string bikini. In her caption, she expressed that she’s “simply so proud” of her body as she views it in the snapshot she shared.
“I see scars, stretch marks, and cellulite that I used to fight so hard to hide, and now they represent just how powerful my body has been through the past 31 years,” Bader, 31, wrote in her reflective caption.
Remi Bader at the 2026 ‘Sports Illustrated Swimsuit’ launch event in New York City on May 14, 2026.
Credit: Andrew H. Walker/Shutterstock
“My body has carried me through years of dieting and restricting, binging and purging, debilitating back pain, back surgeries, back and forth weight gain to weight loss and such a significant internal transformation that my body is still getting used to,” she continued. “It’s also been through years of being told it was too big, not enough, embarrassing, unattractive, not small enough, not curvy enough, you know the rest. But through all of it, my body never gave up on me.”
At the 2026 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit issue launch party on Thursday, May 14, the Fangirl founder spoke to PEOPLE about her self-confidence and how it has evolved with her feature in the magazine, something she says she has wanted “for a while.”
“I think for the past five years, since I’ve been online, people have identified me through my body, which I never came online being like, ‘This is what I look like, this is who I am,'” Bader says. “I think people put you in a box when you’re online, and I’ve been okay with that. But now that it’s been a few years and I’m still going through that journey with my body, I’m just like, ‘I don’t think I have it figured out and I still don’t.'”
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Currently, she feels like she is in “the best place” she’s ever been in with her body, both physically and mentally. “Which I think is really hard, especially when you’ve gone through an eating disorder,” she adds at the event in New York City.
Bader summarizes the moment by telling PEOPLE that her Rookie status came at the “perfect time” in her life. “It shows that timing is meant to be,” she continues. “I feel like it’s right.”
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