The 10 women who changed my life
The women who have helped the singer become the woman she is
Getty ImagesLorde
Becoming friends with Ella was like immediately having a truth serum added to my life. If I’m conflicted about something and I need a clear-cut answer, Ella is the one I call first. There is no grey area with her. There is yes or no, right or wrong, this or that. Life is so much easier when you have a friend who shoots straight. And she’s so intelligent, her advice is always spot on.
Taylor Swift/InstagramIna Garten
My comfort zone when I get home from touring is to relax with one of Ina’s Barefoot Contessa episodes. Ina shows you not only how to cook, but how to create ambiance for your guests. She shows you how effortlessly she entertains friends. People who live beautiful lives inspire me to fill mine with beauty.
Getty ImagesKarlie Kloss
Karlie is pure sunshine, and anyone who has met her would tell you that. She thinks of everyone else before she thinks of herself. She tries to make everyone around her better and stronger. She buys random presents and stops by (just to say hi and give you a hug). She has a million things to juggle and I’ve never seen anyone do it so gracefully, all the while putting herself last on her list of concerns.
Rex FeaturesFaith Hill
Faith is one of my favourite singers because she shows so many sides of herself. She is glamorous, but emotive. She is quirky, but elegant. She is flawless, yet always comes off very human. When I first started putting out albums, she was one of the first women to reach out to me and make me feel I had a friend in the music world. I’ll never forget that, and I’ll always try to treat young artists the way she treated me.
Getty ImagesMy mom
Looking back at my early childhood, before the preteen insecurities and whispers in school hallways caused doubts and insecurities in my young and impressionable mind, back when
I was just a tangly haired kid running around in mismatched clothes on a farm all day – way back then – the things I remember feeling about myself were the things my mother told me over and over again. I was special. I was smart. There was no one like me. I was different from everyone else in the world. I wasn’t weird, I just had a wild imagination. I wasn’t strange, I was creative. She was proud of me. She wouldn’t want to be anywhere else more than she wanted to be with me. When I grew up, the first things to make me question those ideas were bullies and mean girls in class. Every day I went home devastated and my mom would remind me that they were wrong. Sometimes I’d roll my eyes and scoff at her opinion, but there was always a quiet confidence deep inside me that wouldn’t let people and their mean-spirited words defeat me. Since then, it’s gone from school-yard bullies to tabloids. It’s never going to be painless when people say things about you that aren’t true, or try to make you feel worthless. But I was lucky enough to have a mother who armed me with the only weapons I’ll ever need to fight the cruelty of this world: words.
Rex FeaturesLily Aldridge
Lily was my first close friend to get married and start a family, and it’s been so inspiring
to watch her raise her little girl, Dixie. She balances being one of the busiest career women in the world with being her little girl’s best friend, doting mother, favourite playmate and constant companion. I look at her and see the best-case scenario for how I’d hope to be if I ever had children.
Taylor Swift/InstagramEste, Alana and Danielle Haim
I never had sisters, and I always wondered what that would feel like. Moments after meeting the Haim sisters, I started to feel what it must be like. They made me feel like one of them immediately and before long, it was daily hangs, group texts, and vacations together. It turns out life is much more fun in a sisterhood!
Getty ImagesLena Dunham
Simply meeting Lena once changed my idea of what a successful woman in film is. She is warm and approachable and completely unarmed. She’s excitable and childlike, all the while running a set of hundreds of people and creating one of the most exciting and intelligent portrayals of young women on television. Lesson: powerful women do not have to act masculine or cold in order to get things done. Powerful women can be huggers who name their dog Lamby and make flower crowns in their free time.
Read all of Taylor Swift's Guest Edit in the June issue, out now
