Sharina Gutierrez Says She 'Manifested' Becoming a 'Sports Illustrated' 2024 Rookie: 'A Dream Come True'

Sharina Gutierrez holds many titles: mom, wife, model, sound healer — and now a Sports Illustrated 2024 Rookie. Her journey to gracing the pages of the popular publication took 21 years, but the process resulted in a spiritual evolution that inspired her lifestyle brand, Mama Mantra.

"I feel like all those no's made this just so worthwhile because of divine timing," Gutierrez exclusively tells OK!. "I get to celebrate a dream come true, but I also get to celebrate this with my family, which is even better with my three kids and my husband."

Throughout her career, Gutierrez envisioned herself working with the iconic brand, and she now admits it was worth the wait.

"My kids are old enough to see mommy make her dreams come true," she gushes. "I feel like the universe and God had a plan and was like, 'Wait, it's going to be your turn! Just wait.'"

"It's really helped me to understand my manifesting abilities," she adds.

When the entrepreneur began to pursue her dreams and attend castings, she was a single parent focused on providing for herself and her eldest child, but shifting her approach led her to more opportunities.

"I was in survival mode," the Filipina-American activist admits. "I was a mother, I was a single mom, and my priorities were just to survive. I knew who I was as a person — just living to survive in the moment."

"I wasn't aware I could manifest things, but as I started to develop my self-awareness and my love for self, things started to change for me," she continues.

For 10 years, the fashionista used her agency to pitch her for the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition, but she didn't book the job until she self-submitted using footage that highlighted her life at home instead of her physique.

"This was the first year I didn't show my body, I didn't show my body at all in this video, but I showed the beginning of my modeling journey up into me becoming a mother," she reveals. "I showed my children, my husband, my mom and my grandmother."

"I showed how much family and how becoming a mother made me the person that I am today and that I want to help better the world and to show the world that dreams do come true just by being yourself," she continues. "I finally got my yes, and it wasn't because of my body. It was because I had the confidence."

Aside from her years of gracing the covers of magazines, the female founder is using her wellness knowledge to motivate followers through Mama Mantra. For five weeks, Gutierrez will host a Monday sound healing session on Sports Illustrated's social media accounts — and part of her initiative is to build a community that empowers people.

"Sound healing amplifies your intentions into the universe because it allows you to really confront the things that you're holding within yourself and to make space for the things that you want to manifest in your life. You can't manifest what you truly want if you're holding on to all the negative things that are blocking you from actually believing that you truly deserve that," she shares.

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Fans of Gutierrez are able to learn from her wisdom and incorporate into their own lives.

"Mama Mantra was built on my pain and the struggles that I deal with as a person," the mother-of-three explains. "I know that those demons I have to face every day."

"These tools that we provide are an easier way for us to face those daily demons," Gutierrez says. "These are daily challenges we all face, and we all have moments when we lack inspiration. Our goal is to help people to break that barrier to unlock their true potential."