Fashion model Halima Aden becomes the first model to wear hijab and burkini on the cover of the swimsuit issue of Sports Illustrated.

Sports Illustrated's annual swimsuit issue, best known for its racy covers of scantily clad bikini models, will feature for the first time a Muslim model wearing a hijab and burkini, the magazine said Monday.

Somali-American model Halima Aden's rookie spread will be set in Kenya, where she born in a refugee camp and lived until the age of seven.

"Growing up in the States, I never really felt represented because I never could flip through a magazine and see a girl who was wearing a hijab," Aden said in a video tweeted by the magazine.

Halima Aden makes history as the first model to wear a hijab and burkini for Sports Illustrated Swimsuit.

Sports Illustrated also posted a picture of her posing lying down in shallow water, wearing a turquoise hijab, long yellow earrings and a deep blue burkini -- the full length swimsuit favored by some Muslim women.

Halima, 21, made headlines at age 19 when she was the first woman to wear a hijab in the Miss Minnesota USA Pageant, where she made the semi-finals in 2016.

She has previously featured on the cover of British Vogue and walked on the New York Fashion Week runway.

Agence France-Presse