COSMO DARES YOU.

We're challenging you to say buh-bye to your inhibitions with bold acts of babelicious bravery--from stripping sassily to flaunting false eyelashes. We promise they'll shake up the status quo and spike your life with spine-tingling excitement.

* You probably think of yourself as a courageous babe who embraces adventure and confronts life's challenges with the cool, I-can-handle-it confidence of cyber-superhero Lara Croft. But what have you done to prove it lately? Even if you have a resume of impressive escapades in your past, it's essential that you keep pushing your limits--to conquer your insecurities, discover new sides of yourself, and have a greedy amount of good time. "Living life to the fullest means achieving gutsy feats," says Cheryl Richardson, author of Life Makeovers (Broadway Books, 2000). "When you take risks, you stretch your comfort zone, turning things that used to seem scary into no big deal. From there, you're able to take on even bigger challenges and attain bigger accomplishments." So to make you prove your Cosmo credentials, we're daring you to perform a series of slightly daunting, sometimes wacky, but definitely worth it acts of no-holds-barred bravado. (If you don't take us up on at least five of these, you're a big wuss.)

GET YOUR PALM READ

You don't want to swallow a soothsayer's advice wholesale, but noting your reactions to what a "psychic adviser" predicts can give you powerful clues about your deepest desires. For example, if she says a new love is coming into your life and your heart leaps with joy, it's a signal that you really want romance--and you should put your energies into making it happen, says Judy Kuriansky, Ph.D., author of The Complete Idiot's Guide to a Healthy Relationship (MacMillan, 1998).

TIE ONE ON (YOUR TONGUE)

Everyone should have a seductive trick. And we think the most outrageously sexy sideshow a girl can perform is tying a cherry stein into a knot with her tongue. The how-tos: "Pick a cherry with a long stem--one and a half to two inches," counsels Lou Paget, author of How to Give Her Absolute Pleasure (Broadway Books, 2000). "Put the cherry in your mouth, and mash the stem's middle lightly with your teeth to soften it. Form it into a U, then flip it over so the curve is at the hack and the two ends face your front teeth. Now use your teeth and tongue together to make the two ends cross--and then use your tongue to flip one end through the middle. You'll know it when you feel it--it'll kind of thunk right in there." That other thunk? His jaw hitting the floor.

OUT-GUY THE GUYS