- I'm going to a very important business meeting
right after my workout today.
(upbeat music)
- Today, we're re-creating iconic fitness magazine covers.
- I'm re-creating Shakira from Self magazine.
I play wheelchair basketball.
I've been playing for 10 years.
Participating in something like being on a magazine cover
is a good way to show that a woman with a disability
can be a sexual person.
- I'm re-creating Khloe Kardashian's Health magazine cover.
Beauty comes in different forms and sizes.
I love hiking.
I really haven't seen a trans individual as a model
for the cover of any fitness magazine yet.
- I'm re-creating Claressa Shields' cover
from the ESPN body issue.
I'm nowhere this girl's level,
just so strong, so awesome, but she's at
the top of her sport.
- I'm re-creating Karlie Kloss from Women's Health.
I just recently started my own fitness journey.
I feel like I'm just now starting to like my body.
I am feeling incredibly anxious
about comparing myself to Karlie Kloss.
I'm worried that I'm going to see it
and feel like I fell short.
- I'm going to be re-creating Britney Spears'
Shape magazine cover.
In Britney Spears' cover, she's wearing this
really cool, beautiful white swimsuit,
and this was the best one we could find.
I don't have Britney's thigh gap.
I don't have Britney's boobs,
but it'll be interesting to see someone like me
on a magazine cover.
- So the picture I'm re-creating is
Simone Biles' cover on Teen Vogue.
I do get a lotta comments
about how my muscles are too big,
that it's very unfeminine of me
to have the body that I do.
I've never seen a woman appreciated
on a magazine cover for strength and muscles
the way Simone is.
- Okay, let's go get photographed basically naked.
(upbeat music)
- We're contouring my abs right now,
and I have never had makeup on any other
part of my body but my face.
So this is weird.
- Before, I talked a lotta talk,
but now I gotta the (bleeping) walk.
- I am really nervous.
- I should have gotten a bikini wax before this.
So I have a little loincloth until it's go time.
- This is ridiculous (laughs).
I took up boxing a year ago,
and so now I box two to three times a week.
It's such a wonderful, strong sport,
and I love to be able to show
that plus-size women do work out.
- I had a hard time with my face.
I'm generally not a very expressive person.
I think my eyebrows are just like constantly tense.
But then I think I just kind of like
loosened up a little bit.
I tried to look less like
I'm posing for a cover, and just was like,
Be a nice person, Jordan, and have a good time.
- I've seen amputees on fitness covers before,
but they're really hot,
they don't have amputations as high as mine,
they don't have scars all over.
I'm also excited to show a part of my body
that I don't show to anyone
except for my wife and myself.
Once the fan hits me, I feel just like Shakira.
- I feel stupid.
It was a lotta fun, but I felt really stiff.
Someone must have directed her.
Like, how do you think like, I'm gonna just stick
my finger in my mouth, but I think it's gonna look good.
Nothing was natural about it.
- I love re-creating Khloe Kardashian.
It's quite flattering.
She's such an iconic pop culture persona.
I feel great right now.
- Don't look at me, you guys.
I think I was a little bit more nervous
than I thought I would be.
I'm doing it for Britney.
I have a lot more respect for models
who just take their clothes off all the time and do this.
I think it takes a lotta bravery,
no matter what your body type is.
(dramatic music)
- I am nervous, I'm excited.
- I hope I just like don't have fear in my eyes.
- Oh my God.
That looks awesome.
I'm totally not Shakira, but I'm on the cover of a magazine.
And my scars are all out there, and it's pretty cool.
- Ooh, it's a venue to inspire people,
to empower people like myself.
I'm very happy about that.
- Oh wow, the first thing I noticed of course
was how shocking it is to see myself on a cover,
but even more so the text that goes around it.
Michelle, at her best.
24, firm and fabulous.
Makes me think, maybe I am okay, at my best.
- I'm so excited and nervous.
Oh, what?
Wow, what?
Seeing my own body on a magazine is really cool.
It's really cool to be proud and think of myself
as glamorous and worthy of highlighting.
- Oh my God.
I'm like shocked.
Oh my God.
I am really naked.
Wow, that is my butt right there, okay.
I never see bodies that look like mine naked.
It's so different for me.
- Oh shoot.
This is so good.
I really like that you can see the development
in my shoulders and that my arms look strong.
- This whole experience has just taught me
to be more proud of my body than I already am.
- Magazine covers are something that I always
compared myself to when I was young.
It filled me with like a sense of dread
that I didn't look like the women.
There's something really empowering
about just owning who you are and liking it.
- When I get comments or people telling me things like,
oh but you'd be so pretty if it weren't for the muscles,
to kind of take a step back
and celebrate being strong
helps remind me that it doesn't really matter
what other people think.
- People are very critical with how we look.
It starts with accepting and loving yourself.
- I want to see more diverse bodies
on the covers of fitness magazines.
I want to see women whose thighs touch.
- Everyone looks different, that's what's cool.
- I'm not hiding behind anything, it's kind of insane.
This is really fucking cool.
- Ready?
(laughing)