The Dancer Who Made History in a Swimsuit
In 2021, Leyna Bloom appeared in the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue — the first transgender woman of color to be featured in the publication's 57-year history. The image of Bloom on a beach, confident and radiant, was seen around the world. For many, it was the first time they had seen a trans woman of color presented not as a curiosity or a controversy but simply as beautiful.
The Chicago Roots
Born in 1990 in Chicago, Bloom grew up in a world far from fashion's glossy surfaces. Raised primarily by her Filipino-American father, she navigated the complexities of race, gender identity, and poverty from a young age.
She found her first form of expression through dance. Bloom trained in ballet and modern dance, eventually becoming a skilled ballroom dancer in the tradition of the ball culture that has been central to Black and Latinx LGBTQ+ communities for decades.
Dance gave her three things that would define her career: physical grace, performative confidence, and a community that accepted her completely.
The Breaking of Barriers
Bloom's career has been defined by a series of firsts:
- First openly trans woman of color to appear in Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue (2021)
- First trans woman of color in a leading role at the Cannes Film Festival — in the film Port Authority (2019)
- One of the first openly trans models to walk major fashion weeks
- Featured in Vogue India — a historic cover that resonated across South Asia
Each of these firsts was significant not just as a personal achievement but as a cultural marker — a signal that industries long closed to trans women of color were beginning, slowly, to open.
The Dance Connection
Bloom has consistently maintained that she is a dancer first and a model second. Her background in ballroom and contemporary dance informs everything about how she moves through the world — on the runway, in front of a camera, and in everyday life.
She has performed with major dance companies and choreographers, and she brings to modeling a physical vocabulary that most models simply do not possess. Her poses are not static — they are moments captured from continuous movement.
The Sports Illustrated Moment
The Sports Illustrated feature was Bloom's most visible moment. The Swimsuit Issue, for all its evolution, remains one of the most widely seen publications in American media. Bloom's inclusion was:
- A statement about who is allowed to be considered beautiful in mainstream American culture
- A commercial decision by SI — they understood that their audience was evolving
- A personal triumph for Bloom, who had spent years advocating for exactly this kind of visibility
- A moment of representation for trans women of color who had never seen themselves in such a publication
Activism and Advocacy
Bloom's activism is inseparable from her modeling:
- She advocates for trans rights, particularly for trans women of color who face disproportionate rates of violence
- She speaks about the intersection of race, gender, and poverty in the trans experience
- She uses her platform to highlight ball culture and the LGBTQ+ communities that raised her
- She has worked with organizations supporting homeless LGBTQ+ youth
Why She Matters
Leyna Bloom exists at the intersection of multiple forms of marginalization — trans, woman of color, from poverty. The fact that she has appeared in Sports Illustrated, walked fashion weeks, and starred in a Cannes film is not just impressive. It is revolutionary.
She did not ask the fashion industry to create a special category for her. She entered the existing categories — swimsuit model, fashion model, actress — and demonstrated that they were always big enough to include her.
First trans woman of color in Sports Illustrated. Dancer. Actress. Activist. Leyna Bloom didn't break barriers — she danced through them.