Based on this years lineup and the shift of the last few years, I get the impression MJ's trying to shift the demographic of SI toward females so she's maybe trying to pick models that would appeal to the feminist, woman power audience. Which isn't bad and, to be fair, I actually know more women that follow it than men nowadays, but she's still missing the mark even among women, I think.
It seems like the lineup is mostly the weakest of the weak. The only rookies I really care for are Chase and Robin, but even then, they feel more VS than SI to me so my liking them is mostly just 'cause I like them as models, not 'cause I like them for this issue. The veterans are tragically weak. Barbara is probably the strongest of the lot, but at this point, I'm actually drawing a blank on which vets are even in the magazine this year because the whole thing has been so... anticlimactic, I guess? The hype just isn't there.
Unlike most of y'all, I actually think it's cool that she's trying to go for plus size models, but she's choosing bad models. Most of them aren't that pretty face-wise and their posing is really unflattering. They aren't exactly athletic, but they have flat stomachs, they don't have "fat rolls," and they're probably not quite in the "obese" category, but the swimsuits and posing makes them look way bigger. Every model has to pose to their body type and these models seem to think they can pose exactly the same as any skinny model, but even skinny models have to pose to their strengths. Models with shorter legs, shorter necks, less prominent hips, etc. This is just making some of them look even bigger than they are and instead of "celebrating" body diversity it's sort of highlighting their flaws and asking for people to drag them through the mud.
Then you have Anna who looks like she's posing for Playboy and dissolving any semblance of having hips, Alexis looks like Sam Hoopes 2.0, Ravn and Ebonee are boring as hell, and most of the models look like they're just standing in front of a camera. What happened to the days when they actually looked like they were having fun?