Forbes has announced their 100 Most Powerful Women list, which I feel should be renamed The Power Bitch 100.
It's the one list I don't need to get angry at for excluding women, and because it's Forbes, it seems a lot more legit than random websites that make a big fuss about creating a list that only serves as linkbait.
At number one is Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel, and my beloved Lady Gaga clocked in at number 14, sitting pretty between the chairman and CEO of Kraft Foods, Irene Rosenfeld, and Virginia Rometty, the President and CEO of IBM. At 26-years-old, Gaga is the youngest member of The Power Bitch 100. In fact, the only other woman in her twenties on the list is Shiekha Mayassa Al Thani, 29, who is the Chair of Qatar Museums Authority.
Marissa Mayer, Beyoncé, Shakira (yes, Shakira) Angelina Jolie and Gisele Bundchen are the only women in their 30s on the list - and while this obviously isn't about age, it's interesting that only 7 out of 100 women are under 40-years-old.
It's drilled into us over and over again that youth is such an asset. Everything from film roles, to fashion, to the most talked about celebrities are all impossibly young - it's what's apparently powerful and has great pull in the media.
Yet, when you move away from the world of celebrity and focus more on business, politics and humanitarianism, youth isn't the golden ticket. Experience is. The older you are, the more experience you have - especially when you're in the business of running a country, like Dilma Rousseff, or being Secretary of State, like Hilary Clinton.
Of course you can be wise beyond your years and have been through "tougher" experiences than someone twice your age depending on what your life has been like - but it's reassuring to see a list full of older women being the most powerful. We do not have to accomplish our Life's Work before we are 30, or even before we're 50. Sometimes you need time to become the greatest you can be.
You can check out the rest of Forbes' The World's 100 Most Powerful Women list over on Forbes.com.
Image via nonu | photography's Flickr