Taylor Swift is honored with the cover of Billboard Magazines December 2011 Woman of the Year Issue. Taylor wears an adorable black dress on the cover with a quote that says, “This is a year of my life I’m going to want to remember.”
On where she sees herself on a scale of girl to woman:
“Growing up in this position, making music, writing songs and having everyone hear what I’m going through since I was about 16 years old, now I’m 21 about to be 22 — I wouldn’t have had it any other way. On a scale of being a girl or teenager or woman, I never tried to be the one to label myself which of those three I was. I’ve just tried to grow up in the most natural and gradual process that I possibly can and make choices I feel are right for me and my fans. Whether I’m a woman now, or whatever, is up to my fans to decide, not for me. I really haven’t felt the need to make some bold statement of maturity or make the “dark” record yet.”
On the women she considers to be her role models:
“I have a lot of role models. Faith Hill is a big role model. Reese Witherspoon is a role model of mine-she’s not in music, but I love everything she stands for. Shawn Colvin is a huge model for me. Her writing has been consistently great and thoughtful and wistful and beautiful. And also-[he’s] not a girl-but Kris Kristofferson has been a big role model for me. When I look at people who I feel have really lived their lives and recorded their lives in music so beautifully, those are my role models. They’ve all taught me lessons just by example.”
On whether she’s ever had a year she just wanted to forget:
“Not an entire year, but I’ve had a six-month period I’ve wanted to forget-whether you’re talking about criticism or an awful breakup or whatever trauma you happen to be going through. Every single one of us has a few months here or there that feel like dark months. For me, what helps me with sad times or frustration or rejection is writing songs about every one of those emotions, and for some reason, after I do that and I’m proud of the song, things make a little more sense to me.”
On whether she has any idea where she wants to be in 2018:
“I love that Dolly Parton plans out her life in seven-year plans. I thought that was brilliant. There’s so much about Dolly Parton that every female artist should look to, whether it’s reading her quotes or reading her interviews or going to one of her live shows. She’s been such an amazing example to every female songwriter out there. As far as in the next seven years, I’ll be 28 or 29, so I don’t know. It just depends who I meet. But I’ve always hoped that I continue to write music for the rest of my life, and the clearest future I see is always my next album because I’m always obsessed with the latest song I’ve written, my newest idea about the newest thing for my newest album. That’s been my obsession for the last six months to a year.”
On whether she considers herself to be a role model:
“As you enter down a career path it becomes very clear what that career path is going to ask of you. One of the things that is a huge part of making music and putting it out into the world is understanding that you now have a role in shaping the lives of the next generation. And you can either accept that role or you can deny it and ignore it and say it’s a parent’s job to raise their kids. But the reality is what you wear matters. If you’re a singer and on TV and in the living room of some 12-year-old girl, she’s watching what you’re wearing and saying and doing.
For me, when Faith Hill performed on an awards show, everything mattered-everything she said, did, wore, I tried to copy it. That’s what little girls do, so there is a big responsibility and I take it very seriously.”
