Brianna “Chickenfry” LaPaglia has been busy the last few months. After putting her country-singer ex-boyfriend Zach Bryan in his place, she feuded with her former co-host and childhood best friend and launched a camo-print sweatsuit collab. Then she flew to a private resort in La Quinta, California, and shot with Sports Illustrated Swimsuit. I mean hey, you know what they say about breakups: There’s no greater revenge than gracing the cover of a magazine with a smoking-hot bikini photo.
In the accompanying profile, LaPaglia talks about Taylor Swift (thumbs-up), online hate (thumbs-down), and the pressure of being unexpectedly thrust into the position of internet role model (thumbs-neutral). “I think people do tend to forget I’m just 25,” she told the outlet. “It’s really overwhelming to feel the pressure of being a role model on top of everything in my life being very public, because at the end of the day, I’m still just a girl trying to figure her life out.”
Apparently, the shoot was also karmic for LaPaglia. She said she’d been booked to host the red carpet for the 60th anniversary celebration of the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit issue last year, but pulled out after Bryan allegedly called the gig “trashy.”
“It’s a lot more than me looking quote-unquote hot in a swimsuit — it’s me reclaiming who I am as a woman, reclaiming my body and my decisions and my choices,” LaPaglia said. “It is just, on a petty level, my favorite fuck you.” Touché, Chickenfry.