Deep Dive with Denise Marie Bidot

Get to know the trailblazer that will be featured as a rookie in the 2025 magazine.

Get to know 2025 SI Swimsuit rookie Denise Bidot. While on set in Jamaica, we asked Bidot questions throughout the day to get to know her better. We asked everything from her favorite places to travel to whether or not she's superstitious. Watch for some fun facts about 2025 SI Swimsuit Rookie Denise Bidot that will have you as enamored by her as we are.

TRANSCRIPT

Hi guys, It's Denise Bardot here, and get ready for my Deep Dive with SI Swim.

I think a fun fact about me that people might not know is that I was born on a Friday, the 13th, and I am probably the biggest scaredy cat on the planet. Like, I would marathon movies with my friends growing up - When it would hit on Friday the 13th, and I would just hide in the bathroom, but I do find Friday the 13th to be super good luck, and I love the number 13.

Wow. Girl, I changed what I wanted to be when I groew up constantly I feel like I'm still evolving into what I want to be when I grow up, even though I'm grown. I tried every sport. I tried basketball, volleyball, soccer, tennis, and I sucked at all of them, so I realized really early on that athletics were really not my thing. So I scratched that out, and that left me with art. And then I was like, okay, maybe a painter. I went to school for art when I moved to LA I tried to do acting, and all the doors closed on me, and my mom was like, 'You should probably go to school for something.' So I went to school for makeup because art, makeup, film made sense. I was like, somebody's gonna see me and they'd be like, that girl, it's your turn. Life was kind. I think I must have manifested that, because I was at a shoot doing makeup for a plus-sized model, and the photographer was like, Oh my God, have you ever thought of modeling?' And I was like, 'Holy crap. Put that into the one thing that I hadn't thought of for myself.'

I feel like, in life, it's always so much fun to learn things. And recently, when I found out I was doing Sports Illustrated, I actually, like, started trying, not, like all the Instagram ads, different classes. And I was like, okay, well, I'm gonna try, you know, Orange Theory, and I'm gonna try like rowing. I'm gonna try like, performance Pilates, and I was just trying to see, like, my like, fit, love, like, what I like, because, again, athletics: not really my thing, and my friends are all laughing because I fell in love with rowing. I like, love it, like it's so hard and I let out every frustration that I could possibly have.

I always say there's no wrong way to be a woman. We're gonna make mistakes, we're gonna go up, we're gonna be great, we're gonna suck, you know, like, it's empowering because, you know, you'll make it through. I started a movement of, like, almost 10 years ago, which is crazy, and it started off with there's No Wrong Way To Be a Woman. And then I wanted it to be a bit more inclusive. So we went to just the No Wrong Way Movement. And I wanted everyone to feel, you know, just as empowered and as beautiful as I was seeing happening to women across the world. And so I just want people to feel boldly unapologetic. And we only get one shot at this. So we got to do it. Like, really go for it.

Oh, that's a great question, because I feel like music is such a part of, like, your energy and like your day. So maybe Feeling Good by JLo, that one pops up in my IG stories all the time. Like, when I don't know what to put I'll be like, 'I'm feeling good,' and you just really, just like vibe, I don't know it's big.

I don't care how many places I travel to, I still champion Puerto Rico for being one of the most beautiful places on the planet. One of my first international jobs was in Tenerife. And I just remember, like, when we were flying down, there was like, this big volcano that you would see, like, above the cows. I don't know if it was like the time or place in my life. I just got my passport. I was ready to, like, model and do this thing, and then I get to this, like, beautiful island in the Canary Islands, and it just, like, blew me away. It was so breathtaking.

My daughter makes fun of me about a lot of things, but we have a really playful, like, great relationship. She laughs anytime that I say I bought something on the Tiktok shop. She's like, 'Wow, mom, you really can't be saying that out loud.' And I agree. And then yesterday, walking in here, a bunch of like, mature women were talking about the Tik Tok shop, and I understood. I was like, I'm good.

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