Irina Shayk

It always seems strange to think of how some of these supermodels started out; for Irina Shayk it was a beauty pageant in the Russian city of Chelyabinsk. Modelling wasn’t some kind of first love for Irina though – she wanted to be a teacher of literature as a child because she liked making up stories and reading. What a waste of talent it would have been if she only ever stood up in front of a class of schoolkids.

Pushed on by her mum’s influence she went to a music school for seven years, and then started studying marketing at college but found it really boring so enrolled in a beauty school with her sister. In a twist of fate, next door to the school was a local modelling agency (convenient), and a scout noticed Irina, telling her to enter Miss Chelyabinsk 2004. She won, drew the attention of more scouts and within a year was modelling in Paris.

She started learning English and then started taking the modelling world by storm. In 2007 she became the face of Intimissimi lingerie, and also found herself appearing in the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition; a tradition she has continued for every year since, eventually winding up on the cover of the 2011 issue. Seeing as this section is called “Why we love Irina Shayk” we can categorically state that it’s because of her immense hotness and has got absolutely nothing to do with the fact that she’s going out with Cristiano Ronaldo. Nobody’s perfect.

Beyoncé Knowles

By far the hottest prong of Destiny’s Child, Beyoncé has gone on to become one of the most marketable artists ever, towing just the right line between philanthropic Christian wonder woman and ‘bootylicious’.

Beyoncé Knowles' marriage to Jay-Z helped, of course, elevating her to hip-hop aristocracy and making her probably the most heavily guarded women on the planet. You can still touch her though. In Madame Tussauds.

The Queen B’s success can be measured in other, less waxy ways. Beyonce’s sold upwards of millions and millions of records. She’s been named artist of the decade. She has a university course named after her, and a monument in Texas, her home state. But perhaps the most significant sign that she is something special, is that someone was nice enough to name a horsefly after her, Scaptia beyonceae.

The Carter family has now grown again. Just imagine being Blue Ivy Carter, the couple's first collaboration in a sentient being – a child so privileged she makes the royal family look like inbred hermits. She’ll want for nothing, but Jay and B won’t let her become spoilt. She’ll have enough money to do something, but not enough money to do nothing. Because Beyoncé is power, and we respect her so much, we’re not even going to make a crass joke about breastfeeding.