Robyn Lawley: First plus-size model featured in Sports Illustrated editorial

James Macari/Sports Illustrated

FIRST: Australian model Robyn Lawley is the first size 14 model to appear in Sports Illustrated.

Australian model, food enthusiast and environmentalist Robyn Lawley has become the first larger-than-average model to appear in theSports Illustrated: Swimsuit edition.

The six-foot, size 14 model, who is represented by top modelling agency Wilhelmina Models, was announced as one of the magazine's seven "Rookies" for 2015 on Friday, alongside Victoria's Secret star Erin Heatherton.

The 25-year-old, who is now heavily pregnant with her first child, is joined in the annual issue by another curvy model, Ashley Graham, who appears in an advertisement for plus size bikini label SwimsuitsForAll.

MODEL CRUSADER: Robyn Lawley posted a n**e selfie in protest of a mine set to go ahead in Queensland last year.

Lawley, who was catapulted to international fame by Vogue Italia editor Franca Sozzanni after she put her on a cover in 2011 wearing lingerie and leaning over bowls of spaghetti, shot her Sports Illustrated Rookie photo during the first trimester of her pregnancy.

She was then featured in Vogue Australia, starred in a Ralph Lauren campaign and was a recentMarie Claire Australia covergirl.

Lawley, who works out when she can or whenever she feels like it, regularly dismisses the "plus size" tag, and as well as a professional poser, she is also an avid cook.

"You can't control modelling at all. A lot of girls say to me that they want to be models, which is great, but I always try to tell them to aspire to be something else as well because it's one of those jobs you can't control. In the beginning, I was like, 'I'll give it a year in New York and we'll see what happens' and if it didn't work I would've come back and done cooking of something," said told Fairfax Media.

"You might be a beautiful girl, but modelling is a luck and a timing thing, it's so much more than you have the power to control," she said, echoing the sentiments of other successful Australian models like Miranda Kerr.

Last year she was in the spotlight for more controversial reasons after she posted a photo of her n***d body to Instagram with the words "Stop Coal Mining" scrawled on her stomach in red lipstick.

The Sydney-born, LA-based model is passionate about protecting the Great Barrier Reef, "I want my government to be focused on renewable energies," she said.

"I knew using my body would attract attention. I was worried as a feminist, that using my body would attract the wrong type of attention and people might take the wrong idea from it, but I'm a model, my body is my work."

She was then announced as the face of Pantene, one of the first plus-sized models to land a hair and beauty ambassador role.

"For Pantene to be the first to use a girl of a larger size is a push in the right direction so I hope for more and bigger things like it. Beauty campaigns are the final frontier of modelling, it's rare," she said.

Queensland senator and Greens spokesperson for women and the environment Larissa Waters, who is to Lawley what Julie Bishop is to actor Chris Hemsworth, commended Sports Illustrated for featuring a model who promotes a healthy body image.

"I so admire the way Robyn speaks out passionately for our environment and for healthy body image," Ms Waters told Fairfax Media.

"All power to Robyn. As a fellow proud feminist, environmentalist and food lover, I find Robyn so inspirational and her power to create positive change so exciting."

The annual Sports Illustrated: Swimsuit issue reportedly has an international readership of 18 million, one third of which are women. The majority of swimwear which is featured in the editorial pages usually sells out.

-SMH

Source: http://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/fashion/65897932/Robyn-Lawley-First-plus-size-model-featured-in-Sports-Illustrated-editorial