It was the end of a decade, but the start of an age.
Happy birthday, Taylor Swift! The superstar is celebrating her 30th birthday today, Dec. 13! In addition to this major milestone, T.Swift has so much to celebrate this year. From the release of her new album, Lover, to her recent award nominations, to the release of her new movie, Cats, to the love and support of her Swifties, it's a special time in the singer's life. This year has also marked another important moment for Swift, in which she took a stand and spoke up about injustices in the music industry.
As fans of T.Swift will know, she's endured many personal highs and lows in her 20s. Now on the other side, Swift is stronger and more powerful than ever, using her platform and position in the industry to help her fellow artists. Not caring how she'll be perceived, only caring about the art and those who are working tirelessly to create it.
In honor of the songstress and her milestone birthday, we're bringing you 30 fascinating facts about T.Swift!
Take a look at all of the details you need to know about T.Swift below! And be sure to send love to the Grammy winner today!
1. While T.Swift writes all of her own music, she specifically wrote her entire Speak Now album all by herself. No co-writers, just her! The album was released in Oct. 2010, when Swift was just 20.
2. She grew up on a Christmas tree farm with her family in Pennsylvania. T.Swift references her time on the Christmas tree farm on her new holiday song of the same name.
3. She's named after James Taylor. That's right, from one music legend to another.
4. She's a former Abercrombie model. Just like fellow stars Channing Tatum, Jennifer Lawrence, Emma Roberts and Ashton Kutcher, T.Swift modeled for the company in 2003.
5. She gave Eric Church her first gold record. Early on in Swift's career, back in 2006, T.Swift joined Rascal Flatts on their tour after Eric Church was fired. "Actually, she called me after I got fired. I read in the paper that we were fired. She called and said 'I want you to know that I love what you do,'" Church previously told the Arizona Daily Star. "I joked with her, 'This is your crowd; they're going to love you. You're going to owe me your first gold record.' I was kidding, but when she got her first gold record she gave me one. It came with a note: 'Thanks for playing too long and too loud on the Flatts tour. I sincerely appreciate it. Taylor.'"
6. She has doubled jointed elbows. During her Vogue 73 questions video, T.Swift was asked if she has any "really cool or bizarre" talents. In response, T.Swift said, "OK, I'm well aware that this is not a talent, but this is like the only thing that I can do. I have double-jointed elbows."
7. Her drink of choice? Vodka and Diet Coke, as revealed in that same Vogue video.
8. She turned off her comments on social media to "block some of the noise." In her essay for Elle, entitled "30 Things I Learned Before Turning 30," T.Swift explained why she decided to turn off her comments section on Instagram. "Social media can be great, but it can also inundate your brain with images of what you aren't, how you're failing, or who is in a cooler locale than you at any given moment. One thing I do to lessen this weird insecurity laser beam is to turn off comments," Swift said. "Yes, I keep comments off on my posts. That way, I'm showing my friends and fans updates on my life, but I'm training my brain to not need the validation of someone telling me that I look [fire emojis]."
9. She was originally going to name her seventh studio album Daylight before landing on Lover. Before writing the song "Lover," Swift had another name in mind for her seventh studio album. But since the album was the follow-up to reputation, T.Swift thought the name Daylight would be a little too on the nose. So, when Swift wrote the song "Lover," she decided that would be the name of the album.
10. She's the youngest solo artist to win Album of the Year. T.Swift was just 20 when she won the top honors in 2010 for her beloved album, Fearless.
11. Swift and Adele are currently the only female solo artists to win Album of the Year at the Grammys twice.
12. Swifties will love this! The singer's album, Lover, has now sold over 1 million pure copies in the United States since its release in August, according to Chart Data. This is the first album to reach this milestone in 2019.
13. She's made history! At the 2019 American Music Awards in late November, Swift surpassed Michael Jackson's record to become the most awarded artist at the AMAs.
14. As a child, young T.Swift wanted to be a stockbroker, just like her dad! But she went on to find her true calling in music, later moving from Pennsylvania to Tennessee with her family to kick off her career.
15. She learned to play guitar around the age of 12 after learning a few chords from a technician who was fixing her computer. She then went on to write her first song, "Lucky You."
16. She's "obsessed" with Phoebe Waller-Bridge. While talking about her love for Fleabag, T.Swift told Entertainment Weekly, "I'm really obsessed with Phoebe Waller-Bridge. She makes you crack up, shocks you, and breaks your heart all in the span of a few minutes in that show." T.Swift later performed on the SNL episode which the Amazon Prime star hosted!
17. She wrote her own monologue for her appearance on Saturday Night Live in 2009, which doesn't usually happen with celeb guests! T.Swift clearly impressed the SNL team with "Monologue Song (La La La)."
18. She's been BFFs with Selena Gomez since their respective relationships with the Jonas Brothers. Back in 2008, Swift spent time with Joe Jonas, while Gomez dated his younger brother, Nick Jonas. The two quickly became close pals, and have remained tight to this day.
19. Remember the "redhead named Abigail" that Swift references in "Fifteen," her beloved song about growing up? Well, Swift is also still BFFs with her, too! Abigail Anderson is her name, and T.Swift was a bridesmaid in her wedding in 2017.
20. She's a godmother! T.Swift is the godmother to pal Jaime King's son Leo Thames.
21. Swift has said that she may never perform her song "Soon You'll Get Better," which is about her mother's cancer battle. During a Q&A session in Aug. 2019, as part of a SiriusXM Town Hall special, Swift shared, "It was hard to write, it's hard to sing. It's hard to listen to for me, but sometimes music is like that."
22. She doesn't have Twitter on her phone. In an interview with Billboard, Swift explained, "Sometimes, when I open Twitter, I get so overwhelmed that I just immediately close it. I haven't had Twitter on my phone in a while because I don't like to have too much news. Like, I follow politics, and that's it. But I don't like to follow who has broken up with who, or who wore an interesting pair of shoes. There's only so much bandwidth my brain can really have."
23. She's never been to therapy. "No, I've never been to therapy. I talk to my mom a lot, because my mom is the one who's seen everything," Swift told Rolling Stone in Sept. 2019. "God, it takes so long to download somebody on the last 29 years of my life, and my mom has seen it all."
24. She enjoys the "simplicity of life" in London with longtime love Joe Alwyn. "Taylor has been spending a lot of down time in London. She doesn't go out much other than to take a walk with Joe or go to the local pub," a source told E! News in early Dec. 2019. "They spend a lot of time with Joe's family and friends."
25. Speaking of Joe, she's also her actor beau's number one fan!
26. According to Swift's recent interviews, her favorite lyrics off of her Lover album are, "Ladies and gentlemen, will you please stand?/With every guitar string scar on my hand/I take this magnetic force of a man to be my lover."
27. Swift is the highest-paid woman in music! According to a Forbes report, released in August, Swift made $185 million in pretax earnings over the past year.
28. The Netflix film, Someone Great, inspired her new music, "I cried watching the movie. For about a week, I start waking up from dreams that I'm living out that scenario—that that's happening to me," she told Elvis Duran during an interview in August. "I'd have these lyrics in my head based on the dynamics of these characters and I went in the studio with Jack Antonoff." The studio session led to the creation of Swift's song, "Death By a Thousand Cuts."
29. She puts her most emotional song as track five on her albums. From "All Too Well" to "The Archer," the superstar reserves the fifth spot on her albums for a heartbreaking ballad.
30. She marks Lover as a new beginning. After years of highs and lows, Swift is ready to start anew. "There are so many ways in which this album feels like a new beginning," Swift said in her Sept. 2019 Vogue cover story. "This album is really a love letter to love, in all of its maddening, passionate, exciting, enchanting, horrific, tragic, wonderful glory."