Brianna LaPaglia Celebrates SI Swimsuit Digital Cover With Important Message of ‘Reclaiming’ Herself

The 25-year-old content creator highlights what the opportunity means to her.

Brianna LaPaglia was photographed by Katherine Gougen at The Austin Estate. Swimsuit by Sommer Swim. / Katherine Gougen/Sports Illustrated

As announced by the brand today, Brianna LaPaglia is SI Swimsuit’s January digital cover star. Following in the footsteps of Alix Earle and Ilona Maher, the influential internet personality absolutely shone while on set with photographer Katherine Gougen at The Austin Estate in La Quinta, Calif. The podcast host, who rose to fame through her role with Barstool Sports along with her TikTok and other social media videos, is a source of light for fans looking for laughter and empowerment with her lip-sync clips and real-talk moments.

But it hasn’t all been fun. In November, LaPaglia came out to accuse her ex-boyfriend, country singer Zach Bryan, of emotional abuse. Sharing her story on the BFFs podcast, which she hosts with Josh Richards, the 25-year-old Massachusetts native made the difficult decision to be vulnerable with her fans and divulge some of the upsetting details of what occurred in their relationship—including a $12 million NDA offer, which she refers to as “blood money,” to keep quiet.

In the months since, her fans have rallied around her to send their support, and she’s also received messages from people who have gone through similar situations and could relate. LaPaglia has become an inspiring advocate for self-worth, making her debut with SI Swimsuit all the more powerful.

And it was only fitting that LaPaglia would do some lip-syncing while on the set, channeling one of her favorite artists, Lola Young, with her viral hit “Messy.” Showing off her fun personality, the PlanBri Uncut host posed and danced around in the teaser video below before introducing herself and sharing what this opportunity means to her. “I’m freaking out, I’m nervous, I’m happy, I’m scared, I’m feeling all of the emotions. I can’t wait, I’m so excited,” she says.

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“It means so much more to me than feeling sexy and being in a cool location,” she adds. “I’m allowed to do what I want to do, I’m allowed to do it in any fashion in any amount of clothes in front of whoever I want and no one has the control over you to tell you what you can and cannot do. And to me, isn’t just like, ‘check it off the bucket list, that was really cool.’ This is like reclaiming myself and that’s what this all means to me.”

The behind the scenes video also gives us a glimpse at her natural modeling skills in front of the camera along with the fabulous swimsuits she wore on set. See the full gallery of her gorgeous SI Swimsuit photos here, read her cover story here and stay tuned for the brand’s full sit-down interview with LaPaglia, coming out on Thursday.