I've been thinking a lot about the female pop culture icons I've 'grown up with,' and I can't help but think that women are kind of killing it right now.

I was born in 1989, so the first images of women I can remember were the Amazonian, first-name-only super models of the early '90s — Cindy, Christy, Naomi. The ones from George Michael's Freedom '90 video.

Soon after that came the Spice Girls. I worshiped at the altar of Girl Power and learned of the virtues of knowing how to set the (somewhat ambiguous / maybe scandalous) expectation that "if you want to be my lover, you've got to get with my friends."

Then TLC reminded me that "a scrub is a guy who can't get no love from me." (Or shouldn't be able to, in any case.)

More recently, I've listened to sugar-and-confidence Katy Perry tell me I'm a firework, and super-badass Nicki Minaj remind me that I have to "be a beast" while talking openly about the challenges of "bossing up."

Last year, I heard Sheryl Sandberg speak at my graduation from Barnard.

Meryl and Hillary. Enough said.

And this year, I watched with bemusement as Katniss Everdeen and the quirky-cool ginger protagonist from Disney's Brave both dominated box office.

Then this, among other things, happened in the 2012 election:

Oh, yeah, and the Fey/Poehler/Kaling/Wiig-led wave of attention toward female comedians thanks to Bridesmaids' (praised, beleaguered, then praised again) success.

I know I'm supposed to say this "doesn't mean we've won" the cliched race/competition/battle of the genders (If we'd built hyperlinks at Branch yet, I'd link you to the many people who have taken care of this line of argument for me.), but seeing this collection of women here — the ones who dot my Tumblr, the ones whose style, humor, and career I emulate — is kind of remarkable.

Really remarkable, in fact. And I think we're really lucky.