Taylor Swift Tops 2015 Maxim Hot 100 List

Taylor Swift has come a long way since sundresses, boots and curly hair — she's now a honest-to-goodness sex symbol.

The men's magazine Maxim, which regularly features scantily clad stars in breathtaking photo features, has named Swift at the top of the 2015 Hot 100 list, which they boast is "the definitive list of the world's most beautiful women."

Featuring a cover photo of Swift with wet hair, a barely-there mesh top and smoldering, smoky makeup, the magazine calls the 25-year-old "the world's most relevant and intriguing woman."

Swift follows in the footsteps of previous list-toppers Candice Swanepoel (2014), Miley Cyrus (2013), Bar Refaeli (2012), Rosie Huntington Whiteley (2011) and Katy Perry (2010), among many more.

Speaking with the magazine about the honor, the country-sweetheart-turned-pop-superstar says the past year has been like nothing she's experienced so far.

"This year has been my favorite year of my life so far," Swift admits. "I got to make an album exactly the way I wanted to make it. I got to put it out exactly the way that I dreamed of putting it out. Every one of these kinds of whims and ideas came to fruition."

When asked how she can maintain her many friendships in the midst of such a whirlwind career, Swift says she's learned a lot about working smarter: "Thankfully, 10 years into my career now, I’ve learned how to work in a smarter way."

"You have to have time to breathe and have a happy life, and friendships are so important to me, " she continues. "Thankfully — thanks to the fans — now we get to play stadiums, so we do two or three stadium shows a week. I’ll see my friends in whichever city I’m closer to."

And when asked about her embrace of feminist ideals, Swift sounds downright scholarly.

"I think that when I used to say, 'Oh, feminism’s not really on my radar,' it was because when I was just seen as a kid, I wasn’t as threatening," she says. "I didn’t see myself being held back until I was a woman. Or the double standards in headlines, the double standards in the way stories are told, the double standards in the way things are perceived. A man writing about his feelings from a vulnerable place is brave; a woman writing about her feelings from a vulnerable place is oversharing or whining. Misogyny is ingrained in people from the time they are born. So to me, feminism is probably the most important movement that you could embrace, because it’s just basically another word for equality."

Swift is currently on her 1989 world tour in support of her first official pop album of the same name.

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