Sports Illustrated cover features Asian American plus-size model

The May cover of Sports Illustrated with Yumi Nu.

Yumi Nu is not the first Asian American to land on the cover of the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue, but she as the first plus-size AANHPI model on the iconic cover, she is breaking multiple barriers.

When she first got the news that she was picked to be on the coveted SI cover, the second-generation Japanese American model didn't know how to react.

"I could not speak," the 25-year-old told the New York Post on Monday following the announcement. "I had full body chills. I was shaking. I was crying. They got me really good."

"It’s amazing. I’m on cloud nine," Nu told the Post. "There is nothing I could prepare for. It’s unexpected. I feel like we’re in a place right now where people are making space for more diversity on magazine covers. It’s a big time for Asian American people in media. I know I play a big role in representation in body diversity and race diversity, and I love to be a role model and representative of the plus-size Asian community."

Nu's mother is the daughter of Benihana founder Rocky Aoki. That means her uncle is internationally renown DJ Steve Aoki and fellow model Devon Aoki.

SI is not the first cover she appeared on. She was on the cover of the coveted September Vogue issue alongside a supermodel posse, but she was also the first Asian curve model to land the cover of Vogue Japan.

Nu's journey has not been easy. Not only did she have to contend of being Asian in a predominantly white community, she also had to overcome the fetish some men have for Asian women. Intersecting with those issues is the western standards of beauty that insists on a certain body size and figure.

She grew up in a predominantly white area in Maryland. She tells Yahoo of her struggles to accept her multifaceted identity and to embrace her different cultures. It took some time for Nu to realize that all of these things were intertwined.

While learning to embrace her body and her multicultural identity, introducing a more inclusive standard of beauty to Asian countries and the US has become a cause for Nu.

"I've shoved down this part of my identity and being Asian for the longest time because it wasn't really popular to be anything that wasn't white until a few years ago," she tells Yahoo. 

"I think so many people of color are going through that process of like, 'OK, now the media is accepting us,' which plays a huge role in how we feel about ourselves and in a messed up way, it's given a lot of people permission to finally feel proud where they came from," Nu says. "But when I started thinking about that and processing it and going to therapy and talking about cultural and generational trauma and how that affects my behavior and my problems that reoccur on a day to day and the way I feel about my body, a lot was clicking."

SPORTS ILLUSTRATED

Model Yumi Nu during the photo shoot in Montenegro.

The annual swimsuit issue of Sports Illustrated hits the newsstands on Thursday, May 19, smack dab in the middle of Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. The swimsuit issue, which features 28 women this year and four multiple covers. The other cover models are Kim Kardasian, Ciara and Maye Musk.

"I'm trying my best to understand the magnitude because I think if I really think about it, I would not get off the floor," Nu shares with Yahoo. "I'm still learning and healing through so many things myself. I'm in a good place and I feel powerful and I'm ready to be a role model in that sense. But I'm also just honored and humbled."

"Sports Illustrated was definitely the start of this huge wave that I am riding right now," says Nu, "... the fact that they took a chance on me and I'm here again ... I've had way quite a long journey so far, but it also feels like it's just the beginning."

EDITOR'S NOTE: For additional commentary, news and views from an AANHPI perspective, follow @DioknoEd on Twitter.