Alix Earle Shares Honest Reaction to Seeing Her SI Swimsuit Digital Cover

The social media star filmed the moment she saw her cover photo.

Alix Earle / Robert Hanashiro / USA TODAY NETWORK

The news is out. In addition to the annual print issue, SI Swimsuit will now release a monthly digital issue. With the first one set to come out on Monday, June 3, the brand teased the release today with the announcement that Alix Earle will be the issue’s first cover model.

Earle has known about the feature for a couple months now—and has been keeping it a secret for just as long. But with SI Swimsuit’s announcement today, she had no clue what the cover would look like.

Thankfully, when it comes to her reaction, we don’t have to guess how Earle felt about the photo: she filmed and posted the early morning reveal on her TikTok page. “It’s about to come out, [and] I have no idea what it’s going to look like,” she said in the clip.

The 23-year-old sat with her friend Kristin, who kept refreshing her feed until the photo went live. At 8 a.m., the pair let out a joint scream as they saw the photo for the first time. Earle proceeded to lay down with a smile on her face, “in a state of shock,” as she wrote on the clip.

Alix Earle was photographed by Yu Tsai in Miami. / Yu Tsai/Sports Illustrated

For the social media star, becoming the inaugural digital cover model is “a dream come true,” she wrote.

Earle will follow up her debut feature with a walk down the SI Swimsuit runway this Saturday during the brand’s Miami Swim Week celebrations. You can watch the runway show live here.