The Thrill of Being a Swiftie and Why It’s Not Too Late to Join Us!

LIGHTS, CAMERA, BITCH SMILE! It’s time to talk about the absolute THRILL of being a Swiftie and why it is not too late to come on this crazy adventure with us!

I am struggling with where to start this because there is so much to say! So I’ll share this confession – there are few things I love more than talking about the lore of Taylor Swift and her discography with someone.

Being a Swiftie means a lot of things. It can mean loving her music, it can mean loving her as a person, it can mean you love the thrill of finding easter eggs, it can mean knowing the entire (public) history of someone’s dating life (including some personal details) and it can also mean having a parasocial relationship to the point of loving/hating what and who Taylor loves and hates.

I think I’ll start with the absolute admiration I have for this woman. The public has watched her every move since DEBUTing at only 13 years old to her now 34 year old self. We have seen numerous celebrities buckle under that kind of microscope during their teenage/early 20s years. While Taylor took a different route and disappeared from the public/spotlight. She has been treated poorly, publicly embarrassed, gained a reputation she didn’t ask for and yet she came back stronger. She conquered every bully. She rose to a level no one else can even come close to.

Being a Swiftie also means signing up for an emotional rollercoaster. Whether it’s edge of your seat anticipation for the next surprise Taylor has up her sleeve or scream crying along to her beautifully crafted lyrics. You’re in for a ride.

But how did we get here? I always tell people I think Taylor is a marketing GENIUS. The easter eggs started at a time when people still bought cd’s – feel old yet? She capitalized random letters in the lyrics that spelled out a word for each song. Now, she has us being mathematicians, configuring dates + times, scouring pictures and music videos, it’s the thrill of the hunt! The joy in clowning! Taylor said on the Tonight Show that her music video for “Bejeweled” had so many easter eggs in it they made a PDF to keep track of them all. It is exciting to try and guess her next move and even more exciting when we learn whether we were right or not.

Let’s go back to the admiration I, and many others have for her though. This is a woman who sued a man for touching her inappropriately in a picture for just $1. Then had a scene in a music video where she laid in a bathtub full of diamonds and one $1 bill on top. This is a woman who took the time to re record all of the albums of hers she didn’t own (with bonus never before heard vault tracks) after her masters were sold out from under her. This is a woman who is not afraid to call out her ex’s in her songs with enough clues for us to know exactly who she is talking about and exactly what they did to her. Looking at you Jake Gylenhaal (see All Too Well 10 min version). Or you Matty Healy (Smallest Man Who Ever Lived). John Mayer anyone? (Dear John). While the writing is therapeutic for Taylor, for us it’s enveloping! It’s your bestie spilling to you every harsh detail. It is screaming the lyrics in your car even though you are in a happy relationship at home because YEAH HOW DARE HE NOT SHOW UP TO HER 21ST BDAY PARTY!

Taylor invites her fans into her life in a way no other celebrity does. While also maintaining her privacy. IT’S AN ART. When she was less famous (1989 era) Taylor did something unheard of and invited select fans to her home to have listening parties of the album before it’s release. Can you even imagine?! Or there was Swiftmas where Taylor found fans of hers on social media, went Christmas shopping for them based on their interests, then boxed up and mailed them presents with handwritten notes. It’s things like this that may help someone understand how she can make crowds of 70,000 people still feel intimate.

Swifties grew up with Taylor and now their kids are doing the same. No matter what generation you fall into, she has lyrics you will relate to. We ride for this woman because we have been in the trenches with her! You may not keep in touch with your best friends from high school, but you do remember how it felt singing YOU BELONG WITH ME at the top of your lungs at that time in your life.

The Eras Tour however, changed everything for Swifties. After being in a very private relationship for 7 years (ended shortly after the tour started) on top of a global pandemic, we had barely seen Taylor. She released two pandemic albums, a documentary on Disney+, gave us MIDNIGHTS and then the Eras tour started. This tour will span over 150 shows when all is said and done this December (a two year long tour). Each night the 3 and a half hour show is special and unique with her adding in SURPRISE SONGS. During the acoustic set at each show Taylor plays something different from her 11 album discography. In the International leg of the tour she has even introduced mashups so these shows get even more surprises!

I’m not sure how or where it started but some fans live stream the shows on tiktok making them viewable from anywhere in the world! Bringing a tour that was VERY hard to get tickets to right to your living room.

In the midst of the tour Taylor released the movie version on Disney+ as well. Never to fear for everyone who hadn’t been able to see it live yet – Taylor had a surprise new album coming out that would be added to the show after its brief break for the holidays!

I don’t know how she does it, but she continues to just give give give more and more to Swifties. Which is exactly why it is never too late to jump on the Swifitie train. There is always going to be something else. If you aren’t sure where to start – start with the Eras Tour concert movie on Disney+ and slide in my DMs because I am ALWAYS ready to talk all things T-Sway! <3