Beyoncé
may or may not be pregnant.
This Schrödinger's cat of a baby has a passing brush with the subject matter of this blog, as its possible mother was the swimsuit issue cover girl back in 2007. Count me as one of those people who thought the choice was kind of lame.
Make no mistake, she rocks a bikini. And as I’ve stated, I don’t mind when non-models find their way into the issue. But the cover? That’s for models. This cover, as pretty as it is, was when the swimsuit issue jumped the shark.
But I’m not deeply offended or anything, It’s bikini girls, not adaptations of great works of literature. Beyoncé and SI got some mutual publicity, and the viewing public got to see this:
The following year, we got Marisa, and the world continued on its way.
All this is an awkward lead-in to a discussion of Daniella Sarahyba. She
is pregnant, if in fact she hasn’t had her baby yet. I found this out through the Twittersphere and was kind of sad, because it meant most likely we won’t see her in the 2011 swimsuit issue.
Daniella took a while to grow on me. The first thing to jump out at me in her first appearance back in 2005 was her shoulders. They’re very broad.
This was useful when she had a KISS t-shirt painted onto her in 2007. Joanne Gair needed room for four faces.
But my initial impression was that they gave her a masculine appearance that I found somewhat unattractive. I dismissed her as one of those models who would appear in an issue or two and be forgotten.
But she stuck around, and gradually I noticed my affection for her. She’s so
happy.Nearly every photo features a big, toothy smile:
…or a warm, flirty grin:
…or a giant rictus of joy:
While other models spend most of their time glowering or pouting or staring down the camera, Daniella’s face nearly always declares, “I love being naked!” Her smile is presided over by two warm Brazilian eyes and surrounded by a freaking magnificent head of hair.
There’s a moment in
this 2007 video that sums her up nicely. As a Brazilian, she likes her bikinis miniscule. In discussing the ones she’s been wearing on the shoot, she says:
- - - - -“I love Brazilian bathing suits … because they are like, they have like, small cuts, you know, makes nice body to Brazilian women. (giggle) I’m sure you guys like it too!”- - - - -It warms my heart to know that there are women out there who know I’m looking and seem tickled by that.
For some reason, I recently asked myself if there was an SI model I’d consider “cute.” Sultry, sexy, pretty, pixieish—those adjectives find their way to models pretty easily. But “cute” eluded me until I thought of Daniella.
I leave you with this photo, also from 2007.
On the left is Ana Beatriz Barros, her sultry smirk practically daring you to look at her. On the right is Fernanda Motta, exuding her beatific smolder.
And in the center, with her arms around them in warm, naked-girl camaraderie, is Daniella. Her shoulders broad, her smile wide, her bikini negligible.
I’m going to miss her in 2011.
(Not technically a full-fledged SI model. She was one of the models Jessica Perez beat out to make her debut in the 2012 issue. But Elisandra is pretty dreamy, so I'll let her in.)
You know what? I'm glad Jeisa is in here twice. I wanted her to return after her 2008 debut, but she vanished. She’ll be featured on these pages as a one-hit wonder one day.
