For the first time ever, a hijabi model will grace the cover of ‘Allure’ magazine

Halima Aden is a former beauty pageant contestant and New York Fashion Week model. She also wears a hijab.

Aden, who has walked the runway for Yeezy, Max Mara and Alberta Ferretti, appears on July’s cover of “Allure” magazine, a first for a hijabi Muslim woman. The 19-year-old said that although not all Muslim women cover their heads, it’s important to her personal faith.

“It’s how I interpret my religion,” Aden said in the “Allure” cover story. She prefers more modest dress, with loser fitting clothes, something that hasn’t stopped her blossoming modeling career.

Aden was a contestant in last year’s Miss Minnesota USA pageant, and asked organizers if she could forgo the traditional bikini and wear more modest swimwear. They said yes, so she strutted the stage in a burkini.

Aden moved to Minnesota when she was a child, after being born in a refugee camp in Kenya. The state has one of the highest concentrations of Somalis in the country, and some were concerned about Aden’s participation in a beauty competition. She was one of 15 contestants to compete in the semifinals.

“I just want to go on as myself,” Aden said at the time of the pageant. “When you have a lot of women in our state that do wear the hijab, we should be able to see that everywhere.”

She also said more modest dress allows her to escape from traditional American beauty norms.

“Society puts so much pressure on girls to look a certain way,” she told “Allure.” “I have much more to offer than my physical appearance, and a hijab protects me against ‘You’re too skinny,’ ‘You’re too thick,’ ‘Look at her hips,’ ‘Look at her thigh gap.’ I don’t have to worry about that.”

This story was originally published June 21, 2017 at 7:17 PM with the headline "For the first time ever, a hijabi model will grace the cover of ‘Allure’ magazine."