Amy Schumer bares it all (almost!) for Pirelli calendar shoot

The Pirelli calendar has long made headlines for its scantily-clad women, but this year it's catching attention for a different reason -- putting powerful, successful women on its pages, including comedian Amy Schumer, whose topless photo is sending a message about being who you are.

In one of the more bare-skinned photos of this year's calendar, the star of Inside Amy Schumer stripped down to underwear and posed on a stool holding a cup of coffee in a pose that she called both "sexy" and "disgusting."

"Beautiful, gross, strong, thin, fat, pretty, ugly, sexy, disgusting, flawless, woman," she wrote of herself in a tweet that has been liked 40,000 times. "Thank you Annie Leibovitz."

Famed photographer Annie Leibovitz explained that the tire company gave her a fair amount of creative license with a suggestion to feature powerful, successful women. The 2016 edition features women such as Agnes Gund, the co-President Emerita of the Museum of Modern Art; Lucasfilm Chairperson and producer Kathleen Kennedy and tennis player Serena Williams. What's even more different, most of these women are fully clothed.

"When Pirelli approached me, they said they wanted to make a departure from the past," Leibovitz said in a press release. "I wanted the pictures to show the women exactly as they are, with no pretense."

For Schumer, at least, that meant being barely clothed and funny, with a message: that she's beautiful just like that.

"I felt I looked more beautiful than I've ever felt in my life, and I felt like it looked like me," Schumer said in a behind-the-scenes video.

The calendar received praise from women on social media, especially for Schumer, who often speaks out about women's issues using her unique brand of comedy.

Facebook's Sheryl Sandberg wrote, "You can't be what you can't see-and in an age where visuals are everywhere, here's to imagery that breaks stereotypes and shows women in all their strength."