The annual feature Sexiest Woman Alive designation by the magazine is billed as a benchmark of female attractiveness.
Originally, it was a part of the "Women We Love" issue that was released in November. To build interest, the magazine would do a tease, releasing images of the woman's body parts in the issues preceding the November issue. By 2007, it had become the dominating story of the issue and to create an element of surprise the hints were abandoned.
| Year | Choice | Age | Notes |
| 2004 | Angelina Jolie | 29 | First winner |
| 2005 | Jessica Biel | 23 | |
| 2006 | Scarlett Johansson | 21 | Youngest winner |
| 2007 | Charlize Theron | 32 | First African winner |
| 2008 | Halle Berry | 42 | Oldest winner; first mixed race winner |
| 2009 | Kate Beckinsale | 36 | First European winner |
| 2010 | Minka Kelly | 30 | |
| 2011 | Rihanna | 23 | First Caribbean winner |
| 2012 | / Mila Kunis | 29 |
Read more about this topic: Esquire (magazine)
Famous quotes containing the words woman and/or alive:
“... in every State there are more women who can read and write than the whole number of illiterate male voters; more white women who can read and write than all Negro voters; more American women who can read and write than all foreign voters.”
—National Woman Suffrage Association. As quoted in History of Woman Suffrage, vol. 4, ch. 13, by Susan B. Anthony and Ida Husted Harper (1902)
“The novel is the one bright book of life. Books are not life. They are only tremulations on the ether. But the novel as a tremulation can make the whole man alive tremble.”
—D.H. (David Herbert)