I guess I have to hand it to Sports Illustrated. They sort of have a commitment to promoting healthy body images for women. And by that I mean that Sports Illustrated usually almost never chooses a really skinny, emaciated high-fashion-type for their swimsuit edition cover. They seem to use the same criteria as Victoria’s Secret – slender is fine, but a healthy dose of T&A is a necessity. Thus, Kate Upton is the cover girl for the 2012 Swimsuit Edition. I really like her figure – her (big!) boobs look natural, she has hips, and she’s a pretty “all-American” type of girl. She looks like she eats. She looks like she has “problem areas” on her body that she worries about. She’s accessible, basically. You can see Kate’s SI pictorial here.
What else would you like to know? Last year’s cover girl with Irina Shayk, a Russian, so it’s nice that an American girl got the cover this year. Kate’s only 19 years old (she‘s a baby!), and judging her solely from photos, she seems super-bubbly. She’s from Michigan. Everyone thought she’d get the cover, so this isn’t a huge surprise. The cover was leaked hours before the big reveal on The Late Show with David Letterman last night. Kate already has a significant profile as a model – she has a contract with Victoria’s Secret and Guess already. When her hair is up, she definitely has that sexy/chipmunky Brigitte Bardot look.
Kate Upton is also famous for this viral video of her doing “The Dougie” last year. She’s super-cute:
Photos courtesy of WENN, Fame/Flynet and Sports Illustrated.
The bikini on the cover is all types of wrong… Nice body, average face
Right?! Like, four or five sizes too small. What is it with this invisible bikini trend?! I can actually guess her choice of bikini wax!
Agreed. She’s a pretty girl with a great figure, but this way-too-small bikini makes her look like a piglet. I especially hate the bottom- brazilian wax ahoy. Ugh.
Right? What the fudge kind of bikini bottom is that?!! She might as well be going commando. Damn.
That bikini bottom is so small and low-rise I can almost see the pubes that aren’t even there anymore — I can see the ghosts of the waxed pubes, I mean.
@Eve There’s a whole article on Jezebel how they photoshopped her front bottom crack out. What’s the point of having a sexy woman on the cover of your magazine if you are going to erase the parts of her body that make her a woman? Just weird and disturbing. If you go by how the media portray women, men must think that all women have sex like adult movie stars, have no hair down there, have no front crack and have bolt on sacks for boobs.
“So did they photoshop out part of Kate’s cleft of Venus, to put it delicately? Really the whole area meets her thighs in kind of a flat, strange way—even a Barbie doll has more realistic, prominent-looking genitalia.”
http://jezebel.com/5884821/we-see-london-we-see-france-we-can-practically-see-kate-uptons-lady-parts
Great body for sure, but super generic face. I see girls that look like her every day.
Which is kind of the beauty of the SI marketing: guys will pick it up because she has a ridiculous body, and looks “kinda like that chick they dated back in college.” Or “that girl in the cubicle next door” or “their little sister’s friend” or whatever; she seems *almost* attainable…..
Good observation! Never thought of it that way.
um… hhmm… what in the world is up with her drawers???
overzealous air brushing got rid of her crotch. so weird looking. how did they let that out the door. also, she isnt very pretty.
LOL – you are absolutely right!!
There’s something about her mouth that I don’t like. Especially in the fourt picture.
Pretty girl + excessive photoshop = unrecognisable alien.
For G*d’s sake, why do they keep doing this?!!!
When I saw that 3rd pic I noticed she has a gummy smile. Great body, but her hair is fried, and her face is meh…I hope that top pic isn’t the real cover, they moved her whole head with photoshop, and it looks like it’s not attached. *shudder*
SI picks girls that look healthy and like they don’t mind a burger twice a week but they do pick some butterfaces.
Kate looks just like Brooklyn Decker. Decent body, albeit a little boxy. Her waist is really sharp with those hip bones like Brooklyn but the FACE is so piggy!
She looks like a total Playboy Playmate. Hef will be calling in the next 3 months.
Body is okay…but her face! She doesn’t really look average. Average is kind of cute. Her face looks not cute at all. Like Brooklyn.
Those legs oh my god! they’re legs to die for!!!
It’s good that she’s got meat on her bones, but what is the modeling industries problem with the hourglass figure? Why are all the models I see on the catwalk and covers shaped like rectangles with breast and maybe a butt if you’re lucky to find one with a bum. Please don’t try and tell me this woman has curves because curves come from waist to hip ratio and she, like many models; even the Victoria Secret type, are straight up and down unless they contort themselves or jut out their hipbone into an exaggerated pose.
THIS! Where is the WHR?! WHERE IS IT?! I don’t see it!
Nice body
I’m with all the others: great body, average face.
Did they pick the bikini tops from the tween section?! None of them fit.
LOL …Im just wondering how much airbrushing it took to get that bottom of the bikini to lay flat like that….You ladies know exactly what I am taking about..it is not that flat down there even on a baby ……..
As for her face….why she just a cute little girl you see everywhere ….your neighbors daughter or the girl at the checkout counter or the girls giggling as the walk by you in the Mall…..Sports Illistrated Got is right for once…Just wish that suit would have been a tat more coverup…
One word: photoshop, because a woman can’t even look like a woman in her bikini zone.
Right!? Not to be gross or anything, but it is FLAT. There is NO mound or any sort of … well, anything to speak of! Ugh.
Her skin doesn’t look real – she does have an alien look about her and what is the deal with the fried/greasy hair look – it is not a good trend imo
great figure though!
I will say one thing I believe SI lacks the groundbreaking role it once had.
People always wonder why the Victoria Secrets models are no more in SI as they are considered natural bedmates.
I personally believe SI would LOVE to have Candice, Miranda etc on their books. But these girls dont want to go down the lingerie/swimsuit route they want high fashion. Hnece Candice walking Donna Karen and Carolina Hererra, ditto Joan Smalls.
Fashion is not like it was in the 70s, 80’s, when Christie Brinkley, Cheryl Tiegs, Cindy Crawford et al could do Playboy/SI and still storm the runway and get fashion contacts. It is increasingly streamlined/divided into different ‘kinds’ of models.
Vogue will not call if you’re considered a lads mag staple.
Gisele never did SI as a VS model, even though she was nicknamed the ‘boobs from Brazil’ when she exploded but Heidi Klum/ Tyra did. One went to define HF and cover of the most prestigious publications and runways the other two were for the more commercial lingerie route but all 3 are successful business women.
Their career trajectories bear this theory out.
Great body.
I think her face is actually UNattractive though. Not just average.
She makes me want a tan though.
I’m a totally straight girl but damn, Kate is hot! what a fantastic body. She looks slim, toned but definitely healthy. I think SI made a great choice. She is hot!!!
Of course Sports Illustrated uses curvier models it is a magazine geared towards MEN. Men like women with curves, not stick critters. It is only women’s magazines that have the emaciated looking women, we do this body image thing to ourselves.
On that note I think the model is absolutely gorgeous.
Somehow, she looks like a Playmate, not an SI cover model. Also, it is just me, or is everything about her “pancakey”?
She has nice breasts. That’s all that matters. People say she has a “meh” face, but to me she looks ok. Bring back the all-American beach gal. I’m tired of seeing exotic European faces.
SHE IS 1 YEARS OLD!!!!
She is a teenager!!!
The bikini bottom area seems like it’s been photoshopped or something…..it’s defying gravity!
I seen her on Good Morning America this morning and she does not look like this at all! I hate photoshop! Show the real woman damn it!!
Everything looks just extremely photoshoped her skin looks wierd and the vagina is missing because you should actually see it because of this tiny pants :O
Why did they have to put here in a micro bikini? Seriously, we are an inch away from the goods.
Could that suit be any smaller?! Her tits are falling out and the bottom is tiny, like I’m scared her bits are going to make an appearance.
Somewhere Leo Dicaprio is scrambling for her number.
Word.
Oh no Normades.
Her face is all wrong.
He likes them to look like either him or his mother.
Kate’s fleshy facial features and pouty lips are a deviation from Gisele/Bar/Blake/Erin prototype he favours.
He’ll deffo take the boobs though!
Really? I think she looks a lot like Erin Heatherton.
She’s very cute in a pageant-y way. I can totally see her with a tiara and sash hoping for world peace. And I appreciate that she has big natural boobs. But damn, not only did they photshop away inches of bush/stubble, they ‘shopped away her genitals! How is that sexy?? That bottom is darn ridiculous. LoL
If the bikinis look already bad and ill fitting on a model, how am I supposed to wear them?
Get one that fits? If she is a 4 like the poster below said. The bikini is a 0 or maybe even 00.
I really WANT to like her – I totally support any mag that promotes real bodies…. but I went to the pictorial on the SI site and I guess my eyes are so accustomed to stick figures that they couldn’t accept… the bigness. She doesn’t look good to me. It also looks like they used a lot of photoshop – her skin looks very odd. As a consumer, that makes me frustrated. If she is the “it” girl, just show her how she really is. If she is too fat to be the cover girl, then let her go back to her days a a plus-sized model. The attempt to embrace the fuller figured girl falls flat when she 1) doesn’t look good, and 2) looks like she has been ‘shopped to within an inch of her life.
Her measurements are 33d 25 36. At 5’10 she’s probably a size 4. If she was a plus sized model, people would freak the f*ck out. People already stamp their feet at plus sized models that are a size 8. They did over photo shop, usually she’s cute and charming, but not ‘gorgeous.’ Very girl next door when her skin doesn’t look like it was scrapped off of kim kardashians makeup remover–or as they call it at home depot, the hand sander–and shellacked on kate.
36 inch hips is a 4!!! Talk about size inflation. That was an 8 when I was her age/size.
Google her – prior to this, she was a plus-sized model… and I agree that what constitutes “plus” has really gotten ridiculous, but my point is that constant exposure to the stick figures has had an impact, even on a woman like me who wants women to celebrate their bodies and stop starving themselves.
Cindy crawford was 34 25 36 in the 90s as a supermodel, and a size 8. Yeah there’s vanity sizing, we know that. But I believe kate a modern size 4 rather than kim k with her 41 inch hips being a size 4. It would be equivalent to an 8 in the 80s and 90s. And stopgoop, I completely agree that its had an impact, I’m used to seeing alessandra ambrosia and collar bonds and ribs and thinking its normal too and it makes me sad, so I try to check myself :/
I love that Kate got the cover because she showed horses as a youth in an organization near to my heart. She was successful there, and I know she has a lot of fans from the horse world. Last year was her second year to model ever and she was rookie of the year for SI. This year she’s got a cover? Way to go!
meh… she looks like a porn star – not so much a supermodel. but yeah good body lol
Worst cover ever! SI swimsuit covers are getting worse and worse every year and I think this an all tome low. They photoshopped the h*ll out of her. This cover doesn’t do justice to her. The angle is bad and the bikini is unflattering for her body time. Less is not always more. She could have pulled of a classier cover with a bikini that actually fits and flatters her body.
SI swimsuit and VS are not the same anymore. Worse every year. The girls are blah and not sexy.
Agreed. What happen to using beautiful super models versus blah girls. Looks like a cheap Venus swimwear calendar shoot.
Kate Upton is a product of Photoshop. She’s actually quite soggy in the middle and her boobs are starting to droop, but the whole cute, blond Barbie thing keeps her selling. You can tell from her muscle tone (her legs are so not hot in that pap shot) that she doesn’t really work out much. Oh well, men still seem to really like her.
I was just looking at that pic of her in the white dress and thinking she was another one with a case of the ‘chicken legs’.
She’s cute but nothing amazing IMO.
The entire bottom half of the picture is brought to you by photoshop. I like the fact that she is a healthy weight, but come on, half the photo is just kinda a blur.
She need gum surgery way too gummy it gross
I actually don’t think she has implants but they’ve photoshopped her to look like she has… weird.
Wow, Kate is stunning, absolutely stunning. I don’t like the looks of bony models like Gisele. This is the perfect woman to me.
But reading others comments, it would seem that this image is a result of Photoshop? If so, very disappointing. But at least SI does promote a healthy looking Photoshopped model.
i cant believe you freaks think shes fat…
Why is she in an unflattering bikini? Geez. Even when they have a healthy-sized model they dress her like she’s a 12 year old boy.
She looks great and healthy. Reminds me a bit of Anna Nicole Smith especially in the last two photos.
Of course she is 19 and gorgeous! So I don’t get the excessive photoshop either. I detest that bikini!!!
BAD TOOTH TO GUM RATIO
Her face looks better in the Pap photos than it does on the cover-it looks Smooshed?? or something.
Blah looking girl. Terrible cover shot. Vulgar & looks like a tacky Playboy cover. Unflattering bikini makes her boobs look saggy & she looks thick in the middle.
The quality of girls they have in SI swimsuit edition now is not even close to what it was back in the day. They all look like Hawaiian Tropic/Vegas type girls not beautiful super models like they used to be.
She isn’t the most attractive of models…. I would still kill to look like her, though.
She’s a naturally very pretty girl, there was no need to photoshop her to death. She looks bad here.
I hope people don’t think I’m hating because I do think she is very pretty and has a stunning body, but this is just horrible, horrible photoshop work here. She’s 19 for crying out loud – she doesn’t need to be photoshopped like this.
Having said all that, the target audience for these pics (males) don’t give a flying **** about photoshop or anything like that. I have male friends who hear the words “Kate Upton” and they start drooling. This won’t make a wit of difference to them.
Agreed. She is a pretty girl and there were much better bikini shots of her that would have been better for the cover of SI. That micro-bottom looks ridiculous.
Bad bikini, bad bad Photoshop.
They didn’t used to rely on Photoshop that much:
http://www.nypost.com/rw/nypost/2009/02/03/pagesix/photos_galleries/G2324_photo31.jpg
I think she looks beautiful! She’s soft, with great big NATURAL boobs I can imagine bouncing and swinging as she moves. What a lovely body.
So much nicer than a hard six-pack, bulging arm muscles, and 2 bolt-on grapefruits for tits. I can’t think of anything grosser.
Of course they photoshopped her “cleft of Venus”. In that bikini it would be close to porn. My first reaction when I saw the bottom was “how uncomfortable is she with that tiny thing poking in all the wrong places!”
Her boobs are definitely real. They remind me of mine when I was her age. I hope she sleeps with a bra because they won’t last *sniff*. I wish they did lifts with less scaring – just picture those 20 years later *sniff*.
Oh god, now we have to see this for the next month, on newstands everywhere? She’s NINETEEN for f***s sake. Give me a break. Poor all us grown women who have to tolerate men’s apparent inability to grow up and be MEN (vs the drooling, undeveloped boys most of them are).
Someone needs to put out a APB on her vagina. STAT!!
That bikini is ridiculous!
So sick of all the airbrushing. Why airbrush an already beautiful girl? She looks so unnatural in the bikini photos because of it. The one of her one the pier looks completely fake and even the scenery looks photo shopped.
I’ve seen more cotton in a pill bottle!
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Ok maybe its the photoshop, but what problem areas? The flat stomach or the long slender legs? Im kind of wondering what is considered a “problem area” these days if Kate upton looks like she has one. This site makes fun of people for being too skinny, but then claims a model with a ridiculously above average body has something to worry about. What the heck? Christina Hendricks has problem areas that she probably worries about, Kate upton does not. *end rant*