'Sports Illustrated Swimsuit' model Sixtine Rouyre doesn't want to be 'just another pretty face': 'I really hope that in seeing me, people see themselves'

Model and influencer Sixtine Rouyre is hoping to bring body neutrality to Sports Illustrated Swimsuit after being announced as the latest Rookie for the 2023 issue.

"I do love my body and I love my curves and I've come to appreciate all these things, but I don't have to appreciate those specific aesthetic things in order to just appreciate my body for what it allows me to do," she told the publication. "Our bodies are not there to look a certain way or be aesthetic, they're there to provide for us and allow us to live our lives."

The 25-year-old has been seriously pursuing modeling for seven years with that mission in mind. In 2020, she turned to TikTok to create content spreading her message and normalizing more vast body representation.

"I feel like so many models and so many ads on social media, so much of it is fake and not realistic and I really don’t want the industry to be like that," she explained. "I've always said that I never want to be just a pretty face as a model. ...I really hope that in seeing me people see themselves."

More than anything, Rouyre wants people to be able to feel comfortable in their bodies without being obligated to be positive about it at all times.

"As a woman, I do understand what it's like to hate your body, as every woman I imagine feels like [at some point] and this pressure to be a certain size and look a certain way and have a flat stomach, but still have hips and an ass, … It's insane what we are asked to do [with] our bodies," she said. "You almost [feel] this guilt because you don’t love yourself enough."

So instead of being focused on loving different parts of herself, Rouyre has worked to accept them.

"I can appreciate the fact that my stretch marks are there because I am growing. I'm a growing person, I don’t stay tiny forever," she explained. “Or mothers who have stretch marks, your body created an entire human. That is insane, of course [your body has] stretched, like that makes sense, you know? And so we don't have to love them, we can just acknowledge that our bodies are there."

Rouyre has shared pieces of her own journey of self acceptance on her social media. She also shares content that helps to normalize features that have been wrongly deemed "flaws" or "imperfections." In conversation with Sports Illustrated Swimsuit, she said that getting to know these intimate parts of herself helped her to form a better relationship with them.

"So many of us are uncomfortable being naked, so we just need to be naked more often," she told the magazine, suggesting that people spend time undressed in front of a mirror. "It's gonna be really, really hard at first because you're gonna wanna look away; you're gonna wanna stop. Five minutes is gonna seem like forever."

Ultimately, the goal is to get used to what different parts of your body look like, so "it's not such a big thing" anymore.

"If you're used to seeing yourself and all the little nooks and crannies and everything, and the rolls and the marks and whatever, then you're not so shocked every time you see it. So I think you can desensitize yourself to your own body by literally just being naked all the time," she said. "I really love the way my body looks, I love showing it, so I always feel great in a swimsuit."

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