Twelve is my lucky number—I just love how divisible it is. But 37 turned out to be a pretty amazing year. Story highlights Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer posed for stylish Vogue fashion shoot 
 
 Pepper Schwartz: some women wished Mayer didn't need affirmation of such a spread 
 
 She asks if Mayer couldn't have gotten credit for her brains rather than her looks 
 
 Schwartz: The unintended message is you have to be smart and beautiful 
 
 The picture of Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer tilted on a lounge chair, hair flowing above her and shot from above has sparked a mini-firestorm among women. That's a depressing thought for many talented women who are not beautiful or not sexy. “But when you add them up in aggregate, it’s the difference between a beautiful, polished product and one that feels more awkward.” Lee notes that when Mayer recently hosted an APM reunion at her house, she took time to write a personal note in each of the 200 commemorative photo books. Unfortunately, it is not an exaggeration to say that Marissa Mayer is kind of saying, even though I am sure she did not mean to, that to have it all, sure, you have to be smart, but, let's face it, you also need to be beautiful. “That’s when I really started to use the site a lot more and try to understand it,” she says.
– Marissa Mayer lounges seductively in her new Vogue photo spread, a choice of pose that is proving controversial. A debate is raging over whether the fashion shoot takes away from the actual profile of Mayer, or whether, as a successful female CEO, she should be able to pose however the heck she wants. Pepper Schwartz can see both sides, but she's somewhat "disappointed" in Mayer, she writes on CNN. "Here's a woman who has made it to the top because of her brains, does she still need to self-validate by having a beautiful fashion gig?" That sends an unfortunate message to women who are just as smart as her, but not as beautiful. Does the fact that she agreed to the shoot mean "that 'making it' and 'having it all' needs to include being publicly admired for one's allure"? That's a sad thought, Schwartz writes. "We women would like to feel that for at least some of us, sheer competence would make looks a non-issue in our lives. We would like to think that a brainiac like Marissa Mayer wouldn't need, perhaps would not want, to have a very public glamor shot as a career capstone." Click for Schwartz's full column.