New York ? Jessica Biel has been proclaimed “the sexiest woman alive” by Esquire magazine.

The actress dons the cover of Esquire’s November issue, following last year’s honoree, Angelina Jolie. The 23-year-old Biel, who began as a teenager on the family TV series “7th Heaven,” plays a supporting role in the upcoming “Elizabethtown” and starred earlier this year in “Stealth.”

“It seemed like it would be great – having named Anglina Jolie sexiest woman of the year last year – to try to come up with somebody who was on everyone’s radar screen, but who was also fresh,” said Esquire editor-in-chief David Granger. “It just seemed like Jessica Biel’s moment.”

The magazine also picks a woman for three older age brackets: the Chinese actress Gong Li, 39; the 47-year-old Sharon Stone; and Rene Russo, 51.

“It’s easy to appreciate womanhood without any consideration of age,” Granger says. “Youth isn’t the automatic turn-on it used to be.”