Taylor Swift at 35: Everything She’s Said About Aging, Dating and Her Biggest Fear

She’s given this day a lot of thought. Taylor Swift turns 35 on December 13, and over the years, she’s often been asked where she sees herself at this age. “We exist in this society where women in entertainment are discarded by the time they’re 35,” she said in 2019. And she once speculated that by her mid-30s, “I don’t know if I’ll be onstage. [Maybe] I’ll be behind the scenes, writing songs for other people. I don’t know if I want someone in my life.” Her predictions didn’t exactly come true – she just finished the highest-grossing world tour of all time and has been happily dating NFL star Travis Kelce for more than a year – but that’s just fine with the superstar. “I really like to let life happen rather than having a plan for it,” she’s said. Good advice! Here are some other valuable words of wisdom she’s imparted over the years.

AGING

The singer, who rehearsed for her three-and-a-half-hour Eras tour concerts by running on a treadmill while singing her songs out loud, has learned to value health over beauty. Still, she’s confessed, “I work hard on accepting my body every day.” She’s also done her best not to be “stressed about the idea of approaching 40,” she’s said, and tries to reject the notion that “exhibiting the physical signs of aging is the worst thing that can happen. It’s an impossible standard to meet … that isn’t even remotely required of men.”

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LOVE

Men aren’t constantly asked about their love lives, like she is, either. While Taylor is known to write intensely autobiographical, romantic songs, she’s never been in a rush to commit. “If you have a plan for, like, ‘I need to get married by this age, I need to have kids by this age,’ you kind of force your life to take that course and you might not end up with the right person,” she’s said. And because of her career in the spotlight, she was also skeptical of ever finding Mr. Right. “Let’s be honest. No one’s going to sign up for this and everything that goes with it,” she once admitted. “I don’t even know if that’s possible with the life I have.” Until now. She and the Kansas City Chiefs tight end, 35, have been proudly cheering each other on and flaunting their love in public. “We’re showing up for each other, other people are there, and we don’t care,” she’s said. Not caring is key: “For too long, the opinions of strangers affected how I viewed my relationships. It was an important lesson for me to learn to have my own value system of what I actually want.” What does she want? Someone who “is honest, self-aware, slyly funny at moments you least expect, shows up for you when you need them [and] loves you after they’ve seen you broken.” And most important: “Someone who would never try to change you.”

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FEAR

“To me, fearless is living in spite of those things that scare you to death,” she wrote in the liner notes of her 2008 album of the same name. Taylor, who’s dealt with multiple stalkers, death threats and burglaries (including a recent break-in at Travis’ Kansas City home), once said her biggest fear was the safety of her fans — and herself. While she’s prepared for the worst, “every day I try to remind myself of the faith I have in humanity,” she’s said. “We have to live bravely in order to truly feel alive, and that means not being ruled by our greatest fears.”

WORK

Her intense work ethic is renowned in the industry — and it’s what fueled her at her lowest point, like when Kim Kardashian branded her a “snake” on social media in 2017 or when her music catalog was sold in 2019. In response, her Reputation tour featured a giant blowup snake — and she began rerecording the albums to which she no longer owns the rights. “I respond to extreme pain with defiance,” Taylor, who’s now worth $1.6 billion, has said. “I was like, ‘I’m going to prove myself and make sure people know I deserve to be here.’ My response to anything that happens, good or bad, is to keep making art.”

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KARMA

As for those who wronged her? The woman who wrote “Karma” does her best to ignore the haters these days. “I’ve learned there’s no point in actively trying to, quote unquote, defeat your enemies,” she’s said. “Trash takes itself out every single time.”