Gigi Hadid and Emily Didonato Spotted on Santa Monica Beach

They are very easy on the eyes, intelligent, on vacation, and comfortable in a bikini. And if I looked like they do, I probably would be too. Our photographer spotted Gigi Hadid and Emily Didonato on Santa Monica beach this afternoon. They stopped to give directions to our lucky photog!

Emily Didonato made her Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue debut in 2013, with photos taken in Namibia.

A New Yorker, DiDonato has Italian (obviously), Irish and Native American ancestors. Emily was scouted at The Danbury Mall when she was 10 years old by Tina Kiniry from John Casablancas Modeling & Acting Agency of Connecticut. Tina introduced Emily to Request Model Management in 2008 and she booked jobs as the face of Guess? clothing for spring 2009 and as a model in Ralph Lauren's "Rugby" spring 2009 advertisement campaign. "I'd like to maybe get into acting one day," she says.

DiDonato is of Italian, Irish, and Native American ancestry. Her great-grandparents immigrated to the U.S. from Italy. In May 2009, she was signed as the face of Maybelline New York, having just graduated from high school with only a few months of modeling experience, and made her television commercial debut for the company's "Color Sensational Lip Color" line, alongside Christy Turlington, Jessica White, and Julia Stegner. DiDonato began modeling for Victoria's Secret in August 2009, and appeared on her first magazine cover with The Block's October 2009 issue.

Jelena Noura "Gigi" Hadid, 21, is an American fashion model and television personality. Her dad is Palestinian American Mohammed Hadid. She was named one of the 12 rookies in Sports Illustrated's annual swimsuit issue in 2014. She has also appeared on the reality TV series The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, in which her mother Yolanda Hadid has starred since season three in 2012. In November 2014, Hadid made her debut in the Top 50 Models ranking on models.com.

The Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue is published annually. The cover photograph features fashion models wearing swimwear in exotic locales. All models featured on the cover of the swimsuit issue in the magazine's history have been women. According to some, the magazine is the arbiter of supermodel succession.

The swimsuit issue of the magazine carries advertising that, in 2005 amounted to US$35 million in value. New issues come out around the middle of February or later. First published in 1964, it is credited with making the bikini, invented in 1946, a legitimate piece of apparel. The issue that got the most letters was the 1978 issue. The best selling issue was the 25th Anniversary Issue with Kathy Ireland on the cover in 1989.

To some people, Sports Illustrated magazine's Annual Swimsuit Edition is an acceptable exhibition of female sexuality not out of place on a coffee table. The swimsuit edition is controversial both with moralists who subscribe for sports news content as well as with those who feel that the focus on fashion and swimsuit modeling is inappropriate for a sports magazine. Feminists have expressed that "the Swimsuit Issue promotes the harmful and dehumanizing concept that women are a product for male consumption."

At times, subscriptions have been cancelled by subscribers. The 1978 edition, remembered for its fishnet bathing suit made famous by Cheryl Tiegs, resulted in 340 cancellations. Sports Illustrated makes the controversy a form of entertainment with the issue two weeks after the swimsuit edition packed with complainants such as shocked parents and troubled librarians. Recently, the number of cancellations has declined.

Nonetheless, to avoid controversy, Sports Illustrated has, since 2007, offered its subscribers the option of skipping the swimsuit edition for a one issue credit to extend their subscription by a week.