Five things to know about ‘SI’ cover model Danielle Herrington

2:43 PMLast year, Danielle Herrington was struggling to keep under wraps that she was going to be featured in the 2017 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue, her first real modeling gig.

This year, the 24-year-old is on the cover.

#SISwim 2018 is here and Danielle Herrington is your cover model! 😍 https://t.co/T3yEQZElYG pic.twitter.com/HAEaKOPyvP

— SI Swimsuit (@SI_Swimsuit) February 13, 2018

In being named the cover model for the 2018 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue, Herrington joins Tyra Banks (1996, 1997) and Beyoncé (2007) as the only black women to front the magazine’s most talked-about issue.

Life doesn’t move any faster than it has for Herrington, who has gone from moving to New York two years ago hoping for a break in the business to landing one of the magazine world’s most sought-after covers.

Here are five things you need to know about Herrington:

Herrington is the latest star Straight Outta Compton

Let’s go right ahead and call her one of Compton, California’s finest, reppin’ a West Coast community of fewer than 100,000 residents that overflows with talent. She joins a long list of African-American stars from the community that includes DeMar DeRozan, Russell Westbrook, Richard Sherman, James Harden, Anthony Anderson, Ava DuVernay, Kendrick Lamar, Dr. Dre and the rap group N.W.A.

Herrington has been a full-time model for three years

While she began modeling when she was 13, Herrington got serious about it three years ago. She moved to Brooklyn, New York, in 2016 intending to make the cut to appear in the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue. Within four months she had set up a meeting with the magazine, and two months later she was asked to travel to Fiji to model for the Swimsuit Issue as a member of the 2017 rookie class.

The shoot in Fiji was just her second trip outside of the United States, and her first big modeling job. “It all happened pretty quickly after moving to New York,” Herrington told CRFashionbook.com.

Herrington walked her first runway during the 2017 New York Fashion Week

She debuted during the Philipp Plein show last September and was walking the runway for the high-end German designer the night before finding out she was going to be on the Sports Illustrated cover.

Herrington was once signed by the Trump Modeling Agency

Herrington was apparently part of Trump Model Management, owned by Donald Trump, when she landed the Sports Illustrated swimsuit shoot in 2017.

But last year she was one of two-high profile departures from an agency that has been sued for helping undocumented immigrants get into the United States without work visas. Those women worked illegally in this country as models, and the conditions that the women endured were documented by Mother Jones magazine.

Herrington was gone from the agency by early last year, joining Women/360.

The Trump Modeling Agency was shuttered last April, joining Trump Steaks, Trump Airlines, Trump University and Trump Vodka.

Herrington found out about the cover from her modeling role model, Tyra Banks

Herrington was asked to come to a studio in New York on Tuesday morning to shoot a behind-the-scenes video about the virtual reality aspect of the 2018 edition of the magazine.

Herrington instead was shocked as she walked into a staged photo shoot featuring Banks, who broke the color barrier for the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit cover in 1996 (sharing that cover with Valeria Mazza before appearing solo on an iconic cover the following year).

Shocked to meet her modeling idol, Herrington was moved to tears when Banks, in an America’s Top Model-like reveal, pulled out the large replica of the 2018 Swimsuit Issue cover featuring her image. “I used to watch you all the time,” Herrington told Banks. “Thank you so much.”