Meet Brooks Nader — The 22-Year-Old Winner Of The Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue Model Search
The model won the first-ever, in-person casting call for the swimsuit issue.
Instagram Swimsuit season 2019 is in full force for most of the United States but Sports Illustrated is already revealing its plans for next year's Swimsuit Issue. New York-based model Brooks Nader has been elected as the 2020 Swimsuit Issue cover model as well as having photos appear in this year’s issue.
The Louisiana native moved to New York to try her hand at modeling a few years ago and scoring the SI swimsuit cover is a major coup after being rejected in her early auditions. Now she’s hoping to keep doing more modeling work, including runway and high fashion. Who is Brooks Nader?
1. Early life
Brooks Nader is a Lousiana native who planned a career in the financial services sector before deciding to pursuemodeling. According to the bio Sports Illustrated shared, “Brooks is the eldest of three sisters, who lovingly call her ‘Brooksie,’ and grew up riding horses, making gumbo and playing sports. After high school, Brooks attended Tulane University, where she planned to pursue a degree in finance, before signing a modeling contract and moving to the Big Apple.”
She is a Lousisiana native.
2. Ups and downs
Nader wasn’t always planning to be a model but she was recruited by an agent after he posted her on Instagram. She was able to get modeling agencies in New York, Los Angeles and overseas to take her on as a client but that ddn’t equal instant success. She told the Daily Mail: “Most agencies or clients thought I was too curvy or busty, I was too short, I was too tall, especially for the NYC market and I was told by so many people I would never be able to succeed as a model.” Eventually, however, she started landing jobs and gained success in shoots for Elle Magazine, Bobbi Brown, Laura Mercier, Covergirl, and Miami Swim Week.
3. Tabloid queen
Nader has been modeling for years now, and was the subject of a feature in the New York Post about the difficulty New Yorkers face finding apartments with nice bathtubs. The article showed a shot of Nader in a sudsy bath, complete with rose petals in with the bubbles, and she recounts her struggles with the bathtub in her apartment. The first time she tried to take a bath, the tub didn’t work. She told the Post, “I took off my heels, started the water, turned the drain up — and it was broken. The [stopper] just didn’t work. It might as well have been a shower. I lost my mind — crying, literally, over a bath.” Nader then confessed that she would use her social media clout to get access to swanky hotels so she could take baths “I’ll collaborate with different hotels and they’ll let me stay there in exchange for posting,” says Nader, who shares positive reviews of the hotels to her 185,000 Instagram followers.
She loves taking baths.
4. Announcement
The process for landing the Swimsuit Issue was a year long series of auditions, interveiws, and photo shoots. Sports Illustrated shared the news about Nader getting chosen earlier this month, saying: “Brooks attended the open casting call in Miami last year and earned her way to the final six out of over 10,000 Instagram and in-person applicants. The final six women of the model search journey traveled to Paradise Island, The Bahamas, back in February to shoot with photographer Yu Tsai for a spread in the 2019 SI Swimsuit Issue.” After making the top echelons of the open calls, she was picked to grace the 2020 cover by a combination of fans and celebrity judges, including Christie Brinkley. Brinkley interviewed Nader personally and shared some key career advice. The Heavy reports that Nader recalls Brinkely telling her “Like any other [job], you have to show up on time, be professional, and if you’re freezing, shooting in a bikini in the show or tired, power through it with a smile on your face,” Brinkley told her.
She says it's a dream come true.
5. Future stars
For anyone who has dreamed of being on the cover of the Swimsuit Issue, the chance to try out is coming up. SI is planning another open casting call in Miami and Nader will be on hand to offer up advice. The press release for the event says: “On July 12 and 13, Brooks will be joining the SI Swimsuit team and fellow SI Swimsuit models in Miami for this year's in-person open casting call at the W South Beach. The open casting call provides an opportunity for both new and established models to meet with the SI Swimsuit team.”
You can find Nader's 2019 photos on the Sports Illustrated website.
Rebekah Kuschmider has been writing about celebrities, pop culture, entertainment, and politics since 2010. Her work has been seen at Ravishly, Babble, Scary Mommy, The Mid, Redbook online, and The Broad Side. She is the creator of the blog Stay at Home Pundit and she is a cohost of the weekly podcast The More Perfect Union.