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Starting out with just a game-changing idea, a bulletproof business plan, or an electrifying design, these women are reinventing their industries and demolishing boys' clubs from the ranks of the military to Silicon Valley. They're all under 40, but those aren't stars in their eyes: They're planning a revolution.

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Every day, Liora Gottesman, a 31-year-old copywriter for a Boston-based financial services firm, beelined for the elevators, cigarette and matches in hand, to meet up with her colleague Mike. It was during one of their smoke breaks that the conversation turned to Mike's wife, how she'd become very close to another woman at her job. Gottesman didn't make much of the comment until Mike confided that they had an open marriage. "I was skeeved out," Gottesman recalls. "He went from being a nice, normal guy I work with to some kind of swinging weirdo. Way too much information." Gottesman shared their exchange with a few of their colleagues, and before long nearly everyone in their department was in on the secret.

Much has been made of the pitfalls posed by the Internet, how prospective employers scope out your Facebook and Twitter posts for insight into your character and work ethic. But theirs aren't the only prying eyes you need to be wary of. Our culture of oversharing has made

1. Taking things too personally - A thick skin is the ultimate office survival tool. Taking the daily gruffness of an office atmosphere personally is, frankly, a waste of time. Perhaps your boss is being terse with you because she can't kick her nicotine addiction. Maybe she is fighting with her boyfriend or husband. Or, quite possible, she's just having one of those days. Whatever the reason, taking workplace hostility personally is an unnecessary distraction that will surely stymie your climb up the ladder.

2. Not asking enough questions - Judy Woodruff, a senior correspondent for NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, put it like this: "College didn't teach me how to be a reporter, so I asked a ton of questions and learned that way." In addition, ambiguity is often the source of many office issues. Therefore, ask questions, clarify expectations, and don't be afraid to clarify your clarified expectations. Your boss would rather answer a question than correct a mistake.

3. Shrinking

When the calf meets the ankle and there is no distinction between the two leg parts, you have what's known as "cankles." My mother has them, her mother had them, and I too was born with the lower legs of a plow horse. Centuries ago, I suspect my people were the ones who carried those huge slabs of rock up to Stonehenge. Thick ankles are one of those hereditary English traits - like rosacea and bad teeth - that made me want to disown my ancestors. They are also why I went through life wearing sensible shoes and long pants. Sexy strappy sandals and cute kitten heels were not for me because they made me look like Henrietta Hippo.

"Never mind, Sam," said a favorite uncle. "At least you'll stay upright in a sea storm."

I'm not alone. Mischa Barton, Helen Mirren, Hillary Clinton, Miley Cyrus, and British pop star Cheryl Cole have all been accused of having cankles. When Cole bared her ankles for a recent red-carpet appearance, the British tabloids went nuts. ("The Curse of the

I'm sprawled out on all fours, my hands sliding off the back of a sweat-soaked exercise mat as I desperately try to shift my legs back and forth behind me in a torturous series of moves called "mountain climbers." I'm flailing, dripping, red-faced, and gasping for breath. This may very well be the least graceful or attractive I've ever looked. Questions are running through my head at a pace as rapid as my pulse: Am I having a heart attack? Have I sweat out 14 pounds yet? How did I get here?

"Here" is a studio called Pure Yoga in New York City, where I'm trying out their latest class, Bassett's Boot Camp. It's the brainchild of yoga teacher Loren Bassett and her personal trainer, Cole McDonough, of David Barton Gym. Bassett tells me that she wanted to take her practice to the next level and meld it with some cross-training. "I wanted to combine everything I love," she explains. The result is a 75-minute mix of high-intensity cardio intervals, strength training, core work, and

Here's a little-known fact about Los Angeles natives like myself: We don't own proper coats. Why bother when the weather is 75 degrees year-round? For a tallish, top-heavy girl like me - 5'7", size 16 on a good day with (eek!) a 38G chest - this arrangement proved ideal, sparing me the torture of yet another cramped fitting room. But then I moved to New York, where owning a good coat is as essential as Chinese takeout. One of my first outings in the city was a trip to the "Women's" section of Macy's, where I settled on a mature black bouclé number with Chanel-inspired white trim - cute, but nothing I'd have chosen if size weren't a factor. I'm sure you've all been there at one point or another.

That was 10 years ago, and thankfully, in the years since, the options for big girls have vastly improved - provided you know what to look for. That's where I come in! As a fashion editor and stylist, I know which cut most flatters every shape. So I devised this list of effortlessly chic

Apparently, yes. We tried to ignore what appeared to be gratuitous use of the word "hot" and one clearly overblown media frenzy. The headlines - which appeared on local and regional newspapers and blogs alike - more or less amounted to the same: "Is This Woman Too Hot to Be a Banker?" (In case you've been hanging under rocks or too busy updating your Facebook status or whatever lately, by now you've probably heard that former Citibank employee Debrahlee Lorenzana was fired and is now suing the bank, alleging that her good looks were to blame for her termination.)

At first glance, her claim sounds somewhat laughable, and that's the tone of plenty of the opinions being hashed and rehashed online. After all, good-looking people reap plenty of benefits the less physically blessed among us do not. In fact, besides the obvious advantages, there is scientific data to back this up - a recent Harvard study claims the beautiful tend to enjoy higher pay and have an edge in the job market

I avoid losing, which also means that I avoid winning. I don't play board games, place bets, or actively follow a sports team. And when I play tennis, I don't keep score. My hitting partner and I stick to ground strokes, standing at the center of the baseline, thwacking the ball like a well-balanced metronome. Once in a while, the heat rises and I thread a backhand down the line or she rips a forehand crosscourt. But we'd sooner hurl our rackets at each other than actually beat each other. In our games, social niceties seem more important than winning-I would hate it if someone didn't have fun.

I didn't always feel this way. In high school, I loved tennis matches. Through competing, I knew I was learning important things-how to be a good sport, how to strategize, how to handle pressure. Then, at a certain point in college, while the guys joined club or intramural athletic leagues, we girls started heading to the gym, where we stepped onto the elliptical and stopped keeping