Lizzo revealed this.
The 38-year-old singer is the digital cover model for Sports Illustrated Swimsuit for July 2026. It’s a result of discussions she and the team at the Yitty brand had years ago while designing the swimwear line.
“Every time I do Yitty Swim, it always feels like it’s on a Sports Illustrated level,” she told Paper magazine editorial director Mickey Boardman in a cover story. “If you believe in your dreams, they will become reality.”
The cover suit is of her own design and is a black bikini from Yitty Swim, part of her size-inclusive label launched in 2022, styled with a custom sheer black sarong and Ralph Lauren earrings. Her honey-colored curls are loose as she poses against a wall of palm trees.
Growing up, she never imagined that she would be given space in this series.
“When I was younger, I looked at it and never imagined that someone with my body type would be on the cover,” she said. “It’s really incredible to see how, since we were kids, we’ve been redefining sexy, redefining confidence, redefining what a swimsuit body is.”
She anticipates the backlash and has already submitted a response.
“Seeing my sexy, fat, amazing cover on Yitty Swim might inspire some people,” she said. “But you know…pull the trigger.”
Elsewhere in the shoot, she models a gold Yitty dress and Chloe shell earrings, as well as a shell-trimmed string bikini from Oisuri.
In another frame, she sunbathes on a dock wearing a chartreuse Sienna swim bikini under a green-striped Faithful The Brand sarong, a Cimelo gold chain, a Morning Joy bracelet and anklet, and Roxanne Assoulin earrings.
The two-day shoot moved between a Spanish-style mansion in South Florida and a chartered Residence Yacht Club on the bay.
The ‘Truth Hurts’ hitmaker also opened up about deliberately gaining 20lbs over the past year, after telling the Guardian this month that women are kept under constant surveillance by “systems of oppression”.
“I wanted to be thicker. I wanted to be juicier and thicker, and I did,” she said, noting that commenters tend to think otherwise. “Little do they know it was intentional.”
Her response to anyone concerned about the cover: “Leave it alone.”
The night before the cover shoot, she headlined the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Runway Show during Miami Swim Week wearing an electric blue Yitty dress embroidered with the title of her May album, “Bitch.”
She later told Page Six Radio that a sudden rainstorm made the catwalk sticky and sent several models sprawling, but she remained upright.
She arrived at E11even in Miami with a dozen friends around 2:30 a.m. to attend Swim Week’s closing party, along with Shay Mitchell and former Sports Illustrated Swimsuit digital cover star Alix Earle.
Next up, she stars in a Sister Rosetta Tharpe biopic currently in development, and her first children’s book, Lil Lizzo Meets Sasha B. Floatin, is scheduled to be published this fall.
