SI Swimsuit Legend Paige Spiranac Talks Empowerment and Authenticity

The golf instructor returned to the fold for this year’s 60th anniversary issue as a brand icon.

Paige Spiranac / Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images

Golf instructor and social media content creator Paige Spiranac is officially an SI Swimsuit legend. After initially posing for the 2018 issue in Aruba, the 31-year-old returned to the fold for this year’s 60th anniversary issue as a brand stalwart.

We recently caught up with Spiranac on the red carpet at the magazine’s launch event in New York City on Thursday, May 16, where she shared further reflections on her first brand feature while also divulging the growth she’s experienced since then.

She described being “speechless” at landing a spot on the cover of the 2024 SI Swimsuit Issue alongside 26 fellow brand legends. Additionally, the former Division I golfer noted that her feature in Aruba with James Macari was the first time she truly felt liberated in her own skin.

“I remember being [on set] and being so nervous, I was shaking and I just got in front of MJ [Day, editor in chief] and the entire team, and it was the first time in my life that I felt empowered,” Spiranac said. “I was around people who were allowing me to be me and celebrating it for the first time. It wasn’t ‘Cover up, you can’t do this, you can’t say this, you can’t wear this.’ It was ‘Wear whatever you want and we’re going to embrace it and we’re going to cheer you on.’ I was like, I need you to bring you guys everywhere with me. It truly changed [me] and also the trajectory of my career and what I wanted to do, and it was really a super special moment.”

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Being in the public eye—and in the traditionally conservative industry of golf, no less—Spiranac has chosen to embrace her true self rather than going with the grain merely to appease people. Regardless of what trolls have to say about anything from her clothing choices to her brand, she knows exactly who she is.

“At the end of the day, I know that this is what I want to do and the whole message [which] I think sometimes gets a little bit lost is, you don’t have to sexualize yourself to get attention. Be who you want to be. And this is just how I feel most comfortable,” she says. “Continue to live your truth, even if other people are telling you ‘no’ and you feel like it’s affecting your business, keep pushing through because people will see your authenticity and they’ll want to follow you and support you because of that.”