#theswiftchicks

ｈａｌｅｙ

Jessica, Galloway NJ

@theswiftchicks

So I’ve been a fan for 12 years now, and I really want to say thank you. Thank you Taylor, for every heartbreak, happy time or any memory I have ever had that your music either helped me get through something or just make me happy. I’ve had a very rough time growing up with bullies and struggling with my weight, but when I found your music I found my escape from all that. I would literally go on the bus on the way home from school and just listen to all your music until I forgot about all the terrible things that were happening. Even when I was in a very mentally abusive and sometimes physical relationship, I had your music to escape to. When I finally got strong enough I got away from all the toxic people in my life, I lost 100lbs and met the love of my life who now I share two beautiful healthy boys with. I still had your music to listen to and share with them. Thank you for always creating such beautiful, powerful and meaning songs that I go back to when I’m sad or happy. You create songs for all of us swifties to make our own soundtrack to our lives. I can’t wait for this next chapter!! I will always look up to you and go to your music to pick me up. I love you Taylor and again thank you. 💗🦋1️⃣3️⃣

Hi y’all I’m a new member of @theswiftchicks. Click that profile to learn more about us and our love for @taylorswift.

I’m Jordan and I live in Oxford, Mississippi. I’m originally from Las Vegas, Nevada though! My “stan” tumblr username is playedemlikeaviolin, but you can also find me @joyousjordan

To be honest, I can’t quite remember when I became a Taylor Swift fan, but I do know that she is one of the best performers, storytellers, lyricists, and musical Easter Egg layers around.

My first Taylor concert was the Fearless tour in Las Vegas. Honestly, the entertainment value was off the charts. I’ll never forget the rain at the end with the hearts streaming down. Also I got to touch Taylor’s back when she popped up in the back of the arena and went down the stairs of my section! Ha. Truly one of the best performers I’ve ever seen, and growing up in the entertainment capital of the world, I’ve seen the very best.

I think one of the highlights of my life was attending the 1989 tour on a whim, I bought a ticket to the Atlanta show the day-of from a sorority sister, and drove myself from Auburn. The line “I’m dancing on my own, make the moves up as I go” from “Shake it Off” hit me, for some reason. I attended the concert alone, but I realized it was OK to dance through life alone- to live it freely and loudly and expressively, not knowing the next move and not caring about that.

The following letter was written on July 28th 2018. It was intended to be given that day if I had the opportunity to meet you after the concert at Gillette. Everything I wrote then is true now. 

Dear Taylor, 

I just wanted to thank you. I’ve been listening to your music from the beginning and I’ve always felt like you could read my mind. Every single song you wrote at the time you released it matched up with a boy or a feeling. You are so much more than a popstar to me. You put my feelings into songs. You make me feel like you know me even though we’ve never met. I know you probably get letters like this all the time, but this one is a little different in the end so please keep reading… From the first day I was introduced to your music in the high school library, I was hooked. I’ve always believed in Love Stories and you made me feel normal for not settling for anything but my Romeo. When You Belong With Me came out I had a crush on a boy who was in love with, you guessed it... The cheer captain, and you better believe I was on the bleachers. The song Fifteen literally has my name in it. Never Grow Up came out my freshman year of college and I cried and cried to it. Also, at the bridge of All Too Well, are you kidding me? “Call me up again just to break me like a promise?”… My gosh!!When Shake It Off came out I was in a really negative work environment and I played 1989 every day on my way to work.  The lead single being a mantra of sorts. 

I came across a letter that I wrote to you along time ago. It reads “Dear Taylor, your music makes my heart smile you teach me to Speak Now when I have something to say and to be Fearless. I believe in Love Stories. It’ll happen for us. Well Taylor, as I write this letter I am getting married in two weeks!! I am so Ready For It and I tell him all the time that “he’s the best thing that’s ever been Mine.” (It’s even in my vows.) I am walking down the aisle to Today Was a Fairytale, and I hope it will be. Thank you for continuing to be such a huge part of my life. I will love you Forever and Always (I mean it).

Love,

Abby

It all started back in 2006, 13 years ago with Taylor’s first album release. I was instantly drawn to her melodic, yet cryptic lyrics. Somehow each album found a way to relate to that stage of my life and what I was going through. That’s the unique quality in Taylor, that I’m unable to find in other artists. Taylor takes her life experiences and can relate those moments with her fans, no matter what situation they might be going through and makes them feel like they aren’t alone. Whether someone is head over heels in their relationship, dealing with a toxic breakup, battling through unfaithful friends or celebrating momentous occasions she always found a way to speak to us. No song or album has ever disappointed, only evolved into something new and unexpected.

I am not only a fan of Taylor’s devotion to her music and her abilities to turn thoughts and words into an entire harmonious album. Or how she can take a song and turn it into a visual orchestrated performance with every detail planned, leaving you in absolute awe. I have more importantly stayed a fan throughout her metamorphosis because of how she presents herself not only as an artist but as a person. She uses her music to explain her experiences, but she still holds herself to a standard where she can stay true to herself and true to her fans. Anyone can see that she genuinely cares about us fans and how we experience her music right alongside of her. It makes Taylor excited to see how excited we are and knowing that makes us love her even more.

Whether I was blasting her albums in my car, dancing and singing her lyrics in Milwaukee at the Speak Now tour or Chicago for the Reputation Tour I always felt like she was sharing her music with just me, her fan. I can’t wait for this next album and to see what moments and experiences unfold. To see where she is at in her life and what she is willing to share with us. @taylorswift truly is an inspirational artist and woman and I am proud to consider myself a fan of someone who is willing to be raw, silly, honest and unequivocally themselves.

Thank for always being you,

Love Courtney ❤️🦋🐣

Milwaukee, WI @cparker-here4tswift

I’ll never forget the first time I heard one of her songs. It was summer 2006. My best friend Kamie had just gotten her learner’s permit. We were riding down the only highway in our tiny beach town in Kamie’s 1996 Jeep Cherokee with the windows down, salty ocean air messing up our hair, listening to our local country radio station Gator 107.9.

“He said the way my blue eyes shined put those Georgia stars to shame that night, I said, ‘that’s a lie’...”

Everyone who knows me knows that I am a talker. But for once in my life, I fell silent. We both listened intently for the entire three minutes and fifty four seconds.

Now admittedly, I’m kind of an elitist when it comes to the music I choose to listen to because I’m so focused on incredible lyrics. A song is nothing without amazing lyrics. I’m a Beatlemaniac. I love Fleetwood Mac, Bob Dylan, Led Zeppelin, Elton John, James Taylor—you get the picture. I’m that pretentious snob who’s like “I was born in the wrong decade” and “they don’t make music like they did in the 60s and 70s.” Hey, at least I’m self-aware, right?

I let Kamie choose the music of course since it was her car and while the other songs that came on the radio were fun and catchy, I wasn’t expecting to hear anything that would blow me away. Well I was blown away by the lyrics to that song. And I was even more blown away by the fact that the girl singing it appeared to be around our age. When the song concluded, the DJ said it was this young new musician Taylor Swift’s first single called “Tim McGraw.”

I never forgot that name. I bought her first album later when it was released that fall. I bought every subsequent album on release day. She made me feel like I should own my naturally curly hair and give my straightener a break. She made me feel like I should stand tall and rock heels with confidence even though I’m 5’9” and tower over everyone else. But most importantly, she made me feel like I wasn’t alone. Her lyrics were like reading my own diary—if I wasn’t ADHD and could actually sit still long enough to write a diary—back to myself. She was navigating the awkwardness that is high school and first loves and heartbreak just as I was, but writing about it and being open and honest and raw and vulnerable as she shared her experiences with the world through her music.

It’s funny how music has this strange and beautiful ability to take you back to exact points in time. I remember recording an embarrassing video that I hope never resurfaces of Kamie and me lip-synching to the 2009 Grammys performance of “Fifteen.” I remember dating for the first time and listening to “Our Song” and “Fearless” on repeat. I remember being heartbroken and listening to “White Horse” and “You’re Not Sorry” on repeat.

Speak Now came out when I was in my freshman year of college. I remember hearing “Mine” for the first time and having to pick my jaw up off of the floor because she sang about my life in a such scarily accurate way. My parents’ divorce happened a few years prior and I had developed deep rooted trust issues as a result of that so dating was hard. Hearing her write such a beautiful and optimistic song about a girl with trust issues due to her father’s wrongdoings made me hopeful for maybe potentially getting past that and finding love in the future (spoiler alert—I did and I’m happily married!). I still get chill bumps every time I listen to that song.

I remember studying abroad in London and dating the most beautiful man to ever walk the earth and repeatedly playing “Sparks Fly” on top MacBook speaker volume in my tiny flat, on my iPod while riding the tube, in the library studying, literally everywhere. I remember getting back to the States and meeting this guy I thought was perfect for me because of our electrifying witty banter and playing “Enchanted” nonstop but then being disappointed when things fell apart so all that “Enchanted” playing turned into “The Story of Us”. I remember dating this blue eyed boy who looked at me like I was from another universe and listening to “State of Grace” and thinking maybe he could be the one. I remember screwing him over and feeling bad about it and going “Back to December” all the time. Most importantly, I remember meeting this freckle-faced introverted but brilliant man at a concert and thinking “Everything Has Changed.” And it has. When my sister didn’t like him at first, I reminded myself that this love was “Ours.”

So many things change as time goes on. People change. You move cities. Friends come and go. But music is always a constant. And Taylor’s music has been there for me every step of the way. Every heartbreak. Every love. Every milestone. Taylor, I cannot thank you enough for your words. They mean so much to me and so many people.

Love, the OG Olivia. My older sister who is also a big Swiftie’s name is Meredith and we’re convinced we’re the inspiration behind your cats’ names, see our REP tour signs.

Dear Taylor, @taylorswift

Hey there! It’s ‘ME!’; your buddy, your pal. We have never met, but I feel an undeniable bond between us, and I have felt this for 13 years. This story starts in 2006 when your debut, self-titled album was released. I had never heard of you before, but my Dad brought home your CD after work one day and I decided to give it a listen. I remember  exactly where I was standing in my bedroom that day. I was living the stereotypical life of a misunderstood Freshman in high school. I felt like the weight of the world was on my shoulders.  In all reality though, I was going through a lot. My mom had moved across the country, my parents were getting divorced, I had moved for the 3rd time that year, I was going to this school with a lot of privileged, snotty kids, and I was struggling with lots of anxiety. To a baby Freshman, this was a lot. I didn’t know it at the time, but I was craving someone that understood. Someone that I could love that wouldn’t leave, or disappoint me. That person turned out to be you, Taylor! I popped that record into my CD player and was taken on a journey. I was EMOTIONAL. Every song struck a chord. I remember hearing ‘A Place in This World’ for the first time and thinking I had just heard the soundtrack of my life. 

But it was more than the music. It was true that I connected with you initially through the lyrics, but what made it all the more special was finding out who you were as a person. Who you ARE.  I loved your energy, your spunk, your kindness, you generosity, your ability to make fun of yourself, your beauty that wasn’t vain, your general light that you carried around with you. I remember the first time I heard someone say they didn’t like you. Up until this time I thought I was the only one in the world that had discovered you. I held you tight, as my little secret. Someone at school was singing one of your songs in a mocking voice, and was saying how it was trash. Looking back now though, it makes me smile because this tool knew EVERY word :) Anyways, I was gutted. I couldn’t believe that others had found out about you, let alone were making fun of you! This wouldn’t do. From that moment on I unknowingly became your biggest defender. It became instinct to stick up for you. You were someone that I cherished for so many reasons. I did find myself making friends with some girls that also loved you. Some of my best memories from high school were the long car rides blasting your songs, and singing at the top of our lungs in the showers after gym class. 

Flash forward (and we’re taking on the world together) and I am now 27. I have bought every one of your albums within the HOUR it was released. I have gone to every tour since Speak Now. I have invested myself in your life because I feel like I’m a small part of it! Although we haven’t met, I feel like we know each other. I am so thankful for your constant presence in my life. You’ve been someone that I can always count on. You’ve never disappointed me, or let me down. You’ve been this glimmer of light in my life that I can turn to whenever needed. When I’m celebrating, when I’m sad, when I’m confused, when I’m in love...you are there. Right after you posted about your mom having cancer a few years back, I used that as the push I needed to make sure my Dad got checked. He went for a checkup, and found cancer. He had emergency surgery, and he is in remission to this day. The doctor even said that if we hadn’t found it when they did, he very well might not be here today. It’s moments like THAT that solidify our bond. I feel like you helped me with that, even if it was unknowingly. You’ve made my life a better one, and for that I am forever grateful. I love watching you grow, evolve, and find love. I can’t WAIT to see what is next.

Love your buddy,

Bianca

@paintedmegolden22

@taylorswift

@taylornation