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17: Did you ever imagine this would be your life?
Taylor: I actually started riting in a journal when I was 13. And I have them all in this safe in my house. I have like 25 of them because I would rite every single night. It's crazy to go back and read them and think about all these I once thought were so out of reach. I made this goal sheet when I was like 14 or 15, and it was like, "My life will be complete if ..." I win a CMA award, have a platinum record, have a number one song. And I swear to you, one of the goals was to be on the cover of Seventeen magazine. So as I'm checking these off the list, I'm, You're kidding me!
17: Did wanting to be a star make it hard for you to relate to the other girls in school?
Taylor: I think it happens to everybody at some point in her life, where you're completely on the outside of things. It happened to me when I wa in seventh grade. I'd been best friends with this group of girls for a long as I could remember, but all of a sudden, they were cool and I wasn't anymore. I didn't look as cool or act as cool as they did, and I couldn't figure out why they didn't want to hang out with me anymore. And that was really sad, to sit there and wonder, What's wrong with me?
17: How did you deal?
Taylor: Well, my mom really became my best friend. I remember when I called those girls early in the day and as like, "Hey, you guys wanna go to the mall?" And they were like, " Oh, no, I've got plans" or "I'm gonna stay home." Everyone had a different excuse. So my mom and I went to the mall-and we ran into all of them hanging out together in a store! I just remember my mom looking at me and saying, "You know what? We're going to go to the King of Prussia Mall!" Which is the best mall in the whole state. We drove an hour to get there, and we had the time of our lives! I realized my mom was the coolest person in the world for not making me stay in that mall and suck it up and go on with things. She let me run from my pain for a little bit, and I thought that was the nicest thing that she ever could have done.
17: So did you make new friends?
Taylor: I flew solo for a while. But then my family felt like it might be really cool to change scenery, so we moved to a town outside Nashville. But I think about it this way: If I had been popular, I wouldn't have wanted to leave. If I hadn't wanted to leave, then I wouldn't be sitting here doing an interview for a Seventen magazine cover!
17: True! Did you ever hear from those girls again?
Taylor: I was actually playing a sold-out show in my hometown, and I was signing autographs afterward. And I saw those girlswho didn't invite me to their parties and didn't invite me to hang out with them. They waited in line for three hours to say hi to me. They were each wearing a T-shirt with my face on it, asking me to sign it for them! That's where I have to look at this situation and say, We were kids. And at some point, you have to forget about grudges because they only hurt. And you realize you got good songs about being alone and you got through it.
17: Any other painful things turn into good songs?
Taylor: Well, I wrote, "Should've Said No" about a guy who cheated on me. There's always that moment where you're like, He says he's not gonna do it again, he says he's sorry,and, oh, look how sorry he is! But they're not sorry. If they cheated on you, then you didn't matter enough to be thinking about you while it was happening. So what does it matter if he apologizes after the fact? And at some point, you realize that you do not deserve to be treated like that. I decided I didn't want to be that girl.
17: Do you think that he secretly likes being named in your songs?
Taylor: Yeah, probably. Those kinds of guys like getting attention-because I mean, what else is he doing? He's probably with six different girls who don't know they're being played.
17: So who's Drew in "Teardrops On My Guitar"?
Taylor: He was a guy who I met freshman year of high school. He had the most beautiful eyes and amazing smile. He was so cute and nice-and he talked to me everyday... about his girlfriend! Which is like the screeching brake sound. But I had it bad for him. And I just kept thinking, Why am I so invisible to him? Why does he have to have a girlfriend? I never told him that I liked him, but I did write a song with his name in it-so I think he knows now.
17: Has he contacted you?
Taylor: Actually, he showed up in my driveway a couple of months ago, and it was like in the movies where at the end the guy shows up in your driveway, and you have this awesome kiss- except it's three years too late. I'm like, Why didn't you do this years ago?!? He was a stranger by then, so I felt like I didn't know him anymore.
17: Do you ever write songs about anyone other than yourself?
Taylor: "Tied Together With a Smile" is about a girl I knew my freshman year. She was absolutely Miss Popular, a pageant girl, and she looked perfect everyday! Always had the cutest outfits, always looked the best at prom. But sometimes when you get a little closer closer to people who look that perfect, you realize they don't feel perfect. They feel like they're ugly. And that's what happened with this girl-I became closer friends with her, and one day she confessed that she was bulimic.
17: How did that make you feel?
Taylor: It was really hard for me to take. But I never want to make someone feel horrible. I try to reason with them and be calm about it. After a while, I was just like, "You don't need to do that anymore." So I played a song for her, and I said, "Who do you think that's about?" And honestly, I don't think she ever did it after that.
17: Have you ever felt bad about the way you look?
Taylor: Everybody does! Everybody looks in the mirror and is like, I wonder why her eyes are huge and mine are smaller. But I realize that if you're lucky enoug to be different from everybody else, don't change.
17: Do you ever wonder what it would be like to be someone else?
Taylor: Oh, my gosh, if I were a different person and could start all over, I would want to be Hayley Williams from Paramore! I think she's awesome, and their music is amazing. But you know, I love country music more than anything in the world-I would never change what I do.
17: What do you love most about your music?
Taylor: You can only hope that what your music does is help other people. I hope that I stand for the girl who is 15 and is in school and doesn't fit in. Maybe she can fin some sort of comfort by going home and putting on my CD. Or for the mother and daughterwho don't get along-but maybe when they listen to my music, they do. Or you know, a cute couple who didn't have a song, but they listen to one of my songs and that becomes their song. That's what music was for me. That's what it stood for in my life and how it helped me.
