Lauren Chan Reflects on Changing Beauty Ideals and How to Approach Them

The 2023 SI Swimsuit rookie offers her thoughts on embracing change rather than fighting it.

Lauren Chan was photographed by James Macari in the Dominican Republic.

James Macari/Sports Illustrated

Lauren Chan is full of wisdom, and lucky for us, the 2023 SI Swimsuit rookie is sharing an important and valuable tidbit of advice. The former fashion editor and size-inclusion advocate opened up about what change means to her and how she handles it.

“Change is unavoidable. I was going to say ‘a good thing’ or ‘positive’ and honestly, whether it is or not, it’s unavoidable,” she says while on location of her photo shoot with James Macari in the Dominican Republic earlier this year. “There’s no way to stay the same, try as you might.”

View Lauren Chan’s full 2023 SI Swimsuit gallery here.

She adds that meeting moments of change with self-care, community and a dash of hope is the best approach. The Henning founder cites changing beauty standards as an example.

“Beauty changes all the time—as an industry, personally, interpersonally. We’re all getting older, in a culture that tells us that aging is the worst possible thing you can do,” she explains. “There’s no way to stop aging. And so we have the tension of that to personally take on. I think the best thing to do is just wash your hands of it and say like, ‘That’s not for me. I am who I am. I will be who I will be.’”

Chan adds that society and media tend to pick apart women’s bodies, both when they change and when they don’t. It’s important to use that as a wake-up call and recognize that there’s no point in trying to keep up with ever-evolving and unrealistic standards.

“I just think that it’s really important to recognize what’s going on around us and recognize that although we’re supposed to feel like the beauty ideal is absolute, the fact that it changes every three years implicitly proves it is not absolute,” she says. “S--- changes, so get on board.”

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