Katie Austin Is Great and Grateful

The SI Swimsuit rookie dishes on how thankful she is for all she’s got on her plate.

The Austin name may ring true as a household moniker synonymous with health, fitness and all things good for you, but that doesn’t mean 2022 SI Swimsuit rookie Katie Austin hasn’t paved her own way. (Her mom, Denise Austin, is a fitness legend.) And with a gracious and grateful attitude, to boot.

View the full 2022 photo shoot from Katie Austin here.

Katie Austin is the picture of strength at Night Two of SI Swimsuit’s 2022 launch weekend.

Alexander Tamargo/Getty Images

The model thinks nostalgically back to when she sent her audition tape to the SI Swim editors and how hesitant she felt. After all, it’s not always easy to put yourself out there. But she took the plunge and her hard work and belief in herself paid off. “I look back now and think, ‘If I didn’t press send on that audition tape I wouldn’t be sitting here’,” she says beaming with gratitude. “You have one body and one life, so live it right.”

A thoughtful pause leads Austin to expand on how important it is to stop and be present: “Here’s the thing,” she continues, “in the world that we live in, a lot of people think they’re too cool to be grateful or too cool to be humble, and I’m sitting here right now at the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit launch—something that I’ve always dreamed about—so how can I not just be so thankful?”

It’s refreshing to see how powerfully she vibrates in that gratitude. She’d like to help others learn to use that power in their lives and makes sure to remind her followers to wake up every day living in the present. “People are constantly asking me, ‘What’s next after SI?’; and I don’t want to answer that because I need to live right now and be proud of myself right now.”

Katie Austin on the red carpet during Night Three of SI Swimsuit’s 2022 launch week.

Alexander Tamargo/Getty Images

Austin has a lot to be proud of. She’s recently moved into a new house where she’s spending time in her freshly remodeled dream kitchen cooking and perfecting recipes for a new show on her YouTube channel that will focus on her passion for food and how it brings people together. Meanwhile, she maintains her weekly workouts on the Katie Austin app and is continuing to build to the overarching theme of her brand: making sure that women feel their most confident.

Read here for some secrets Austin shared on her entrepreneurial success.