Explore These Five Mesmerizing Photos of Cover Girl Brooks Nader on Bali’s Breathtaking Beaches

The five-time SI Swimsuit model and Swim Search alum was featured on the front of the 2023 issue.

Ananya Panchal | Oct 8, 2023

Brooks Nader was photographed by Yu Tsai in Bali, Indonesia.

Yu Tsai/Sports Illustrated

SI Swimsuit model Brooks Nader earned her spot on the front of this year’s magazine and she’s still living out her cover girl days. The Baton Rouge native was discovered through the Swim Search open casting call in 2019 and has returned to the magazine every year since. She traveled to Paradise Island for her debut, and Bali the following year. In ’21 the 26-year-old was photographed in Hollywood, Calif. and last year she was captured by James Macari in Montenegro.

Nader truly had no idea she would be starring on the front of this year’s issue. The SI Swimsuit team broke the news to her by crashing her studio shoot with Electric Picks.

“Yes, I swear on my life I was actually surprised,” she recalled. “I find out every birthday secret, every surprise. This one was kept from me by everyone I’m friends with [and] the whole SI team.”

Nader, who is the oldest of four sisters who all live in New York City, posed on the marvelous beaches of the Dominican Republic for a colorful, flirty and fun Barbiecore-inspired shoot earlier this year. Her favorite suit, of course, was the scoop-neck, low-side ruby red Baywatch-esque one-piece she wore for her cover shot.

“No, this is not actually happening, I don’t believe it,” Nader tearfully gushed when she found out. “I was honored enough to be in the magazine so I never thought that I would actually be on the cover. I don’t really even know what to say.”

Below are five of our favorite photos from her 2020 shoot in Bali, Indonesia with Yu Tsai.

Brooks Nader — Yu Tsai/Sports Illustrated

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Published Oct 8, 2023

ANANYA PANCHAL

Ananya Panchal is a writer on the Lifestyle and Trending News team for SI Swimsuit. Before joining SI Swimsuit in 2022, she worked at Bustle, the San Francisco Chronicle and the TODAY Show. When she is not writing or doom-scrolling on social media, Panchal can be found playing sudoku, rewatching One Tree Hill or trying new restaurants. She's also a coffee and chocolate (separately) enthusiast. Panchal has a bachelor’s in communications and journalism from Boston University.