taylor swift: my mentor

Taylor Alison Swift has inspired me and countless of her fans in so many ways, artistically, socially, culturally, and personally. To start with why Taylor Swift has become my ultimate role model, mentor, and creative writing hero, I’ll share some of my favorite quotes of hers.

What Are My Favorite Taylor Swift Quotes?

Taylor Swift has a plethora of deeply powerful, eloquent, poetic quotes and song lyrics, so it’s difficult to narrow it down to just one. Some of my favorites include–

“I don’t think you should ever have to apologize for your excitement; just because something’s cliche doesn’t mean that it’s not something that’s awesome. The worst kind of person is someone who makes you feel bad, dumb, or stupid for, like, being excited about something” – BBC Radio interview, 2019.

“Everybody has to be duplicitous, or feels that they have to, in some ways, be duplicitous. And that’s part of the human experience, but it’s also exhausting. And you kind of learn that every one of us has the ability to become a shape-shifter. But what does that do to us?” –discussing her song mirrorball, from her album folklore, in the Disney+ special folklore: the long pond studio sessions, 2020.

“A man does something, it’s strategic. A woman does the same thing, it’s calculated” –CBS Sunday Morning interview, 2019.

“and you call me up again just to break me like a promise/so casually cruel in the name of being honest”; “And I was thinking on the drive down, any time now, he’s gonna say it’s love. He never called it what it was ‘til we were dead and gone and buried/check the pulse and come back swearing it’s the same after three months in the grave. And then you wondered where it went to as I reached for you but all I felt was shame, and you held my lifeless frame” –lyrics from All Too Well (10 Minute Version) (Taylor’s Version), from her album Red (Taylor’s Version), 2021 (this entire song is just pure poetry).

“long were the nights when my days once revolved around you/counting my footsteps, praying the floor won’t fall through”: “you are an expert at sorry and keeping lines blurry/never impressed by me acing your tests/all the girls that you’ve run dry have tired, lifeless eyes ‘cause you burned them out, but I took your matches before fire could catch me, so don’t look now/I’m shining like fireworks over your sad, empty town” –lyrics from Dear John, from her album Speak Now, 2010 (again, this entire song is deeply poetic).

What are some obstacles that Taylor Swift has had to overcome?

Taylor Swift has unfortunately been subject to intense misogyny, slut-shaming, and overexposure within the entertainment and media industries. She also chose to build her own way up. She had resources initially but she didn’t come from fame and she is the one who decided, from the get go, to utilize those resources to bolster her initial success and pave her own, unique way to superstardom, which she has accomplished most likely beyond her wildest dreams. She started out as a very young artist who wrote all of her own music. She has made it a point to solely write or co-write every single song in her massive, diverse discography. Despite this, she had the original masters of her first six albums basically stolen from her by a ruthless executive who’s she's been known to butt heads with, Scooter Braun. Scott Borchetta, the founder/CEO of her original record label that she was the first artist signed to, built a years-long, deep rapport with Taylor just to stab her in the back and sell her music to a music industry executive who she has been vocal about disagreeing with. Furthermore, she had her spotlight stolen as a nineteen-year-old winning a VMA by a grown man by the name of Kanye West and was then accused, perpetually, for many years after, of being made “famous” by Kanye West, by West directly, his then-wife Kim Kardashian, and his fans, as well as generally being severely berated by him and his fans publicly. All of this resulted in her having to go through some pretty intense personal issues and going on a year-long hiatus from being seen or heard in public because not many people were publicly supporting her. Eventually, she came back stronger than ever, though unfortunately, she really had to prove herself initially. Throughout her career, she’s experienced some of the most intense types of betrayal and cataclysmic events a person can experience, yet she’s continued to only increase her relevance and prolific, significant, iconic legacy.

What parallels can I find between what they’ve done and what I want to do?

Taylor Swift is a songwriter, musician, performer, director, producer, singer, and businesswoman. I’m currently in the Creative Writing BFA program, and with Taylor Swift being one of the most prolific, successful, critically-acclaimed songwriters of present day and of all time, as well as an incredibly talented vocalist, instrumentalist, overall artist, and performer, and having achieved icon status as a 33-year-old woman, is truly inspiring to me. I’m a poet, musician, and songwriter myself and she is my biggest songwriting/musical influence. We also draw inspiration from our personal lives in our writing. We both grew up in the same area–the Philly suburbs, with one younger brother each, of the same age gap. I can relate to her a lot as a human woman and as an artist. We both knew from a young age that we were creative and decided to pursue a creative outlet as a career, although she’s obviously on a much bigger scale than I. I’m not ever going to compare myself to the one and only Taylor Swift, however, I have a lot of both minimal and significant qualities and passions to hers. A lot of what she stands for, both personally and professionally, are in alignment with my views. Both her work and mine have been based in narrative, autobiographical, poetic, or fictional formats/tones. I started playing the guitar mainly because of her. I wanted to do what she does and play the guitar, sing, and write my own music for myself to sing. I’ve always written poetry and I wanted to be able to turn my poems into song lyrics. I didn’t do the recording arts or music production programs because I wanted a more broad opportunity and chose creative writing. Taylor also directs, stars in, and writes her many of her own music videos, co-produces all of her music, solely produced her Eras Tour concert film, and directed, wrote, and acted in a short film for All Too Well (10 Minute Version) (Taylor’s Version) (From The Vault), which won her a Grammy Award. She’s also acted in a number of film and television roles, including an episode of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, an episode of New Girl, and films The Giver, The Lorax, Valentine’s Day, and Amsterdam. She’s now also ventured into directing and writing her first feature film. She’s an overall creative person and an artist, while being most known for her talent for songwriting, she’s not tied down to just being a songwriter. She’s an artist, generally. But also one of the most successful and idolized of her time. The way she manages to balance everything with such poise is an attribute that I aspire to have one day, when I’m (hopefully) successful in my own career–maybe not on the gigantic scale that she's on, but I don’t equate fame to success. Overall, her versatile artistic abilities and her ability to master every form of art that she tries, are the main reasons why she is my biggest idol, inspiration, and influence, as well as my favorite artist of all time.

Taylor Swift is an inspiration to young people, especially women, everywhere, and she’s truly a one-of-a-kind talent.