Sometimes I try to figure out how old you people are. All of you, reading and commenting. Are you of the generation that remembers Wonder Years? Or do you remember the original, called “the sixties”? Or do you have no idea what am I talking about because you’re too busy playing a new-fangled video game? Well, I remember Wonder Years. It was good television! And little Winnie Cooper made an impression on me, mainly because at that age, my hair was almost identical to hers – straight and really, really long. After Wonder Years, boys stopped teasing me about my long hair.

Anyway, the actress who played Winnie Cooper, Danica McKellar, is all grown up. She was actually on several episodes of The West Wing, if anyone remembers her from that great show. She also wrote a book about math, and Danica has, like, a Masters or PhD in something math-related. So… smart girl. Except that she’s posing in Maxim in her underwear. Ugh. Oh, and she’s pregnant too! Winnie is all grown up.

Did you have fun at your Maxim shoot?
Are you kidding? So much fun! There was a smart-and-sexy schoolgirl theme going on, so it was awesome playing dress-up.

How did you go from child actress to math goddess?
When I got to college, I was intending to study film. But I found that my brain was feeling mushy, so I took a few math classes. I started doing really well at them, and solving equations was this, like, drug rush.

A drug rush from math?
It’s true! Then, after graduation, an article came out about a paper I’d coauthored in which we proved a new theorem. From that, I was approached to write books, and I knew I wanted to help girls not be afraid of math. My latest, Hot X: Algebra Exposed!, is coming out in August.

That’s quite a 180 from The Wonder Years.
I realized I needed to find out who I was outside of that show. My whole life people called me Winnie Cooper, and it was important for me to find out what else I had to offer.

Can math be sexy?
Totally! If a guy is skilled at anything, that’s attractive. There’s something very primal about that, and, sure, it can be as simple as figuring out the tip quickly.

What else turns you on?
Confidence is one of the sexiest things in guys and girls. Look at Michelle Pfeiffer: My God, she’s 50 years old, but she is still so sexy. If I were into women, I would be totally into her.

Now, everyone remembers when Winnie and Kevin first kissed. Was that your actual first kiss?
It was, yeah, for both of us. I was 12, and he was 11. That was only about a week after we’d met, and we totally had crushes on each other. But we never kissed offscreen, ever.

You must meet guys who hit on you because of your famous role.
I’ve always been really cautious about guys who have a Winnie Cooper fantasy, and I’m so glad about that. I mean, I can count on one hand the guys I’ve been with. It was really challenging, but I never gave it up too soon, if you know what I mean.

[From Maxim]

Okay, Hot X: Algebra Exposed! is maybe the funniest book title ever. I think it’s the exclamation point that kills me. I also love “I never gave it up too soon, if you know what I mean.” She’s a funny little thing, isn’t she? Or am I laughing because I’m sick as a dog, drugged up and repeating “Hot X! If you know what I mean”? Chuckle… no, that is funny. Anyway, last point: she’s so pretty! I wish she wasn’t posing in her underwear. I wish she was like “You know what? I’m smart, funny and gorgeous, so I’m keeping my blouse on, thank you very much.”

Photos courtesy of Maxim online.

Actress Danica McKellar, who played Winne Cooper on “The Wonder Years,” is coming out with a book to encourage teenage girls to get into math, noting, “’I want to tell girls that cute and dumb isn’t as good as cute and smart.’” Touché. McKellar, 32, has just written a book titled “Math Doesn’t Suck: How to Survive Middle-School Math Without Losing Your Mind or Breaking a Nail” to persuade girls that there’s value to being intelligent, and it will ultimately bring you more success than focusing on your looks. And McKellar clearly doesn’t need to reassure herself; she has some gorgeous shots in this month’s Details magazine. She’s also not simply putting her name on the book, as she graduated summa cum laude from UCLA with a degree in Mathematics. During that time, she had a paper published in Britain’s “Journal of Physics A: Mathematics & General” which provided a mathematical proof for a theorem dealing with magnetism in two dimensions. She now has a theorem named after her, the “Chayes-McKellar-Winn Theorem.” So it’s fair to say, McKellar definitely has a leg to stand on.

“’When girls see the antics of Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan, they think that being fun and glamorous also means being dumb and irresponsible,’ the 32-year-old McKellar told Newsweek for editions to hit newsstands Monday.

“’But I want to show them that being smart is cool,’ she said. ‘Being good at math is cool. And not only that, it can help them get what they want out of life.’”

[From the Washington Post]

Regardless of if it’s cool or not, I can’t do anything fancier than long division. But I’m impressed with people that can. I hope her book gets more press, especially among teenage girls. I’m not sure when it became cool to be dumb, vain, and materialistic. I read some feminist magazine article that traced it back to the re-emergence of pink as the “it” color. I won’t go there, but I do think it’s great that there’s someone out there who is both brilliant and beautiful, which shows girls that they don’t have to compromise either one. McKellar’s book also has profiles for three gorgeous mathematicians. So instead of taking your daughter/niece/kid you baby-sit to the next Lindsay Lohan movie, spend the $10 on a book that teaches her there’s more to life than good hair and bad movies.