Taylor Swift THE MAKING OF A POP CULTURE

Us explains how the singer took over the world one Easter egg at a time.

- ISABEL MOHAN

Whether you're a fully committed Swiftie with a wrist dripping in friendship bracelets or a casual onlooker in awe of her success, it's impossible not to be fascinated by Taylor Swift. So how did this cute country singer who grew up on a Pennsylvania Christmas tree farm transform into a globally adored powerhouse? The truth is, it's what Swift, 34, wanted all along, once admitting, "I'm intimidated by the fear of being average." While no awkward 12-year-old writing songs in her bedroom on an acoustic guitar could possibly imagine the world domination that followed, from a young age, Swift didn't just have a dream; she made it come true.

Let's break it down...

1 Be insanely talented: CHECK!

There's some stuff you can't manufacture, no matter how hard try! Whether you have The Tortured Poets Department on repeat or not, you can't dispute that Swift is a genius with words. Thankfully, her parents spotted her creative spark early, uprooting their lives to Nashville when they realized they had a little genius on their hands. Two decades (and thousands of songs) later, in a world where even the most talented musicians employ teams of producers and writers to craft their hits, Swift maintains a unique control over her process, usually working with just one or two close collaborators as she shepherds an album to completion.

She's also unbelievably prolific, having released five new studio albums in the past five years, plus her first four rerecorded Taylor's Version LPs, each featuring several new "From the Vault" tracks. That comes to 135 new songs since 2019. So what spurs her on? "It's because I could never feel the kind of rejection in the music industry that I felt in middle school," she's said. Yup, most of us just post a hot selfie every now and again to prove something to our childhood frenemies; she went one (OK, quite a few) better!