When Lauren Chan came out in the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit issue in 2023, she didn’t just make history. She proved a point she’d been making her entire career: Representation matters, and the industry needs to knock down its narrow definitions of beauty and success. Last month, she became the magazine’s first lesbian cover model. The Canadian model, TV personality, and advocate had already spent years disrupting fashion’s status quo, first as an award-winning editor at Glamour championing body diversity and then by launching her own plus-size fashion brand, Henning, which she later sold to Universal Standard. Now she’s channelling that same energy into an entertainment career that spans everything from Canada’s Drag Race to Good Morning America.
“I strive for my work to never be entirely self-serving,” Chan says, explaining why she pushes for size diversity, LGBTQ+ voices, and AAPI representation. “That’s the reason I’m able to pour so much energy and passion into it. If I ever get exhausted, I know I have to get back up, not just for me, but for everyone who’s ever read anything of mine or bought anything of mine or DM’d me a coming-out story.” She lives in Bed-Stuy with her fiancée, Hayley, and their dog, Pepper. Here’s how Chan gets it done.
On her morning routine:
I wake up around 8 a.m., roll out of bed, and go straight to the park with my fiancée and our dog. We found an incredible group of friends there, so we walk the dogs together for about an hour, get coffee in the neighborhood, then head home. My breakfast is an iced almond cortado with extra ice. When I get home, I open up social and my inbox and start my workday. If I’m traveling or on set, all of that is negated because I wake up and go straight to set.
On managing stress:
I don’t manage my stress. There’s no point in lying about that. My schedule and my work life are very unpredictable and very intense, and I just have to get it done. I have a running joke with my colleagues: I’m going to be 55 and complaining about the cadence of freelance and gig work because I’ll never get used to it. Perhaps it’s my former life as an athlete, but I can power through a sprint up to two months before really needing a physical and mental break.
On what she’s reading right now:
I’m a big Audible fan. Right now, I’m listening to Alice Sadie Celine, and I have Homebodies and Old Enough on my list. The book that I physically have that I want to take with me on a weekend upstate and read under a tree is Unsuitable, a history of lesbian fashion. I need to make the setting as lesbian as possible when I do read it.
On recharging:
On a slow week, we cook, sit outside, walk in the neighborhood, and get a bottle of wine. But that’s semi-rare. If I’m on set all week or traveling, we get dinner from a local spot on Seamless and watch a TV show like Real Housewives of Salt Lake City that numbs my brain. I’m really excited for The Ultimatum: Queer Love, too.
On her social calendar:
I try to spend weekends doing things that I would be vying to be a part of if I did not live in New York City. For example, I was recently in a comedy show put on by my friends Maddie Silverstein and Carly Kane, and I went to ThriftCon. It’s hard to get me out on a Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday. Since it was Pride, though, there have been so many wonderful, celebratory, joyful, resistant, queer events to go to. I’ve put a lot of energy into that. I can go to about three events a night, max. It’s the beauty of living in New York. There’s so much to be a part of and support.
On the people who help her get it done:
My fiancée helps me get everything done. Obviously we run a household together, but more than anything, she’s so supportive and she makes everything enjoyable. And everyone on my team is amazing. I have a team full of girls and gays, and I adore each and every one of them. I don’t have assistants, but maybe it’s time to get one.
On the challenges of her job:
I work in an industry where one can imagine the ways in which my mental health might suffer based on rejection, physical appearance, or competition. But every person I know, whether they work in this industry or not, has mental-health obstacles. In school, we’re taught how to interview, how to have upward mobility in a corporate space, but we’re not taught how to take care of ourselves, and there’s not a lot of resources once you are in the working world.
On celebrating her accomplishments:
As millennial women, we tend to gloss over big moments. I would never tell someone else to minimize their accomplishments, but I find my brain doing that and trying to move on to the next thing really quickly. But I’ve had so many milestones I’m proud of: Getting my first size-inclusive column in Glamour in print and holding it in my hands. Putting on a body-image workshop with the National Eating Disorders Association. Having the gall to quit my job to start my own size-inclusive business and thereafter being a success story as a plus-size fashion brand, when the industry at large and its investors said that was impossible. Coming out in Sports Illustrated Swimsuit and making history, both as the first out lesbian rookie and the first out lesbian cover star.
On being always on:
I’m always working. I will always answer a text or an email. I don’t know that I have ever not gotten something done. To my own detriment, I’m kind of like a bull and can power through most anything. I canceled one job as a model after I got divorced, and that’s the only time I’ve ever missed work in my life. I hear myself, I do. Maybe I need to book a vacation.
On dealing with self-doubt:
In my job, it mostly manifests through body image. I have to take myself out of moments of self-doubt, insecurity, or imposter syndrome by pulling the camera back and speaking to myself in a way that is very logical. We were never meant to win against a multi-trillion dollar industry that is built to make us feel bad about ourselves so that we buy their products. When I realize I don’t stand a chance, I can let go of the pressure of needing to feel good about myself all the time or feeling like I don’t meet these false standards.
On the advice she wishes she had early in her career:
The ways in which you are different are your superpowers. Do not waste time trying to be like everybody else. What makes you different makes you beautiful and vulnerable, and gives people access to connect with you.
On ambition:
Ambition was instilled in me when I started my career, and probably beforehand, when I was more focused on basketball. As I’m in my 30s, and I’ve accomplished a lot of things I am proud of, my ambition is waning. That both worries me and gives me immense relief. In addition to work, I want to spend time upstate, with dogs, making bread, and that is a surprise to me. If you would have told my younger self that, she would have laughed at you.
On dealing with internet trolls:
The criticism that I get is largely from internet trolls, and I love to eat an internet troll up. I’m like a salivating dog, because it gives me the opportunity to make a man look stupid and educate anyone who’s reading the responses. This year, I was able to turn something a troll said to me on Instagram into an essay for the print issue of Sports Illustrated Swimsuit to coincide with my cover, about how the women in those pages are not there to be objectified by men. They are there to inspire generations of women based on our accomplishments and what they represent.
On proving people wrong:
I grew up playing sports. I can take and love constructive criticism from my team. I have faced a lot of criticism in my career that I have found to be wrong, and it pisses me off. That has allowed me to channel anger and ambition into things like a plus-size clothing company that I’m extremely proud of. I proved a lot of people wrong and definitively showed that plus-size fashion is a viable business, that plus-size people will buy fashion, that we have the means to participate, and that we absolutely deserve to take up space in the fashion industry.