During a virtual interview, the 25-year-old Asian model says that her recent achievement 'means so much' to her and her loved ones after being heavily body-shamed.
- May 20, 2022
AceShowbiz - Yumi Nu has responded to criticism she's been facing after she became the first Asian plus-size model to cover Sports Illustrated Swimsuit. During a virtual interview, she said she isn't "going to let anyone take away" her happiness.
The 25-year-old model didn't "want to get into much" about the comments made by the right-wing psychologist and YouTuber Jordan Peterson but says the achievement "means so much" to her and others. During an Instagram Live on Thursday, May 19, she told Teen Vogue's Editor-in-Chief Versha Sharma, "I don't want to get into it too much and give him more than he's already taken…I'm just happy right now and I know that this cover means so much to so many people including myself and I'm not going to let anyone take that away from me."
Jordan, who left Twitter after receiving an outpouring of criticism for his comments, quote-tweeted an image of the cover, labeling it "not beautiful" before ruling no "authoritarian tolerance" was going to make him see it as. The 59-year-old academic tweeted at the time, "Sorry. Not beautiful. And no amount of authoritarian tolerance is going to change that."
As a part of her initial response, the Vogue Japan cover star posted a video on TikTok of her lip syncing to Nicki Minaj's "Itty Bitty Piggy". With Jordan's tweet in the background, Yumi mouthed along to, "I don't even know why you girls bother at this point. Give up. It's me. I win. You lose."
After the cover was unveiled, the "Blueki" creator called her turn on the magazine, which is preceded by models such as Tyra Banks, Brooklyn Decker, Elle MacPherson and their first plus-size model Ashley Graham, "important" as she had been "tainted" by unrealistic body standards.
Yumi said, "I think my 13 year old self had already been tainted by societal beliefs of what you need to look like to be on a cover." She further said, "If she would've saw it before she saw anything else, I think she would have lived a different life with a different head space."
