“When people put labels on us, it doesn't always enclose everything that we are. So even though I'm proud to be Somali, I'm proud to be American, at the end of the day, I'm still Halima, and I take things from both sides and combine them, and I make my own little category. I'm me!”

American fashion model, born 1997

Halima Aden is an American fashion model. Born in 1997, she came to wider attention in 2016, when she became the first woman to wear a hijab in the Miss Minnesota USA pageant, where she reached the semifinals. After the pageant, she drew national notice and signed with IMG Models. She later became the first model to appear in the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue wearing both a hijab and a burkini, a milestone that extended her visibility in mainstream fashion media.