Taylor Swift

To be a fan of Taylor Swift is to be endlessly inspired by her for a multitude of reasons. Her brilliance in turning the human experience into relatable art. Her powerful work ethic. Her ability to make you feel like the only person in a stadium among tens of thousands of other fans. And that’s not even scratching the surface. But as someone who’s been here since the beginning and watched this meteoric rise year upon year, what I’m most inspired by is how she navigates it all. As a woman of privilege, she’s still faced with impossible goalposts, both professionally and globally, but she handles it with grace, integrity, and light. In a world of drains, she’s definitely a fountain.

How do you narrow down all of Taylor Swift’s accomplishments to just one thing? Let’s list a few then, shall we? The Eras Tour became the highest-grossing tour of all time with its $1 billion gross, and she’s still touring through 2024. The tour’s concert film also became the highest-grossing concert film of all time. She was named Time Magazine’s Person of the Year in 2023, becoming the first pick recognized for their achievements in the arts. During the 2024 Grammy Awards, she became the first person to win Album of the Year four times. She’s helped boost the economy by an estimated $5 billion, and she’s even helped make the NFL and Kansas City Chiefs over $330 million. (Mind you, that last one was just for existing.)

In this current period of Taylor Swift’s career, it seems counterintuitive to implore people to pay attention to her in 2024. She’s everywhere whether she’s consented to it or not and to the excessive (and unfounded) annoyance of dads, Brads, and Chads worldwide. But beyond the sold out arenas, history-making achievements, and best-selling music is an artist with an unflinching point of view. Almost 20 years into her career, she still has something to say, and that’s worth paying attention to.