Telegraph journalist Emily Kowal tells why she’s a diehard Swiftie

Emily Kowal’s 17-year love affair with all things Taylor Swift has made her do some crazy things, but she doesn’t regret any of it. She tells us why she’s a Swiftie for life.

The obsession with Taylor Swift is ridiculous. It’s over the top, excessive and completely blown out of proportion — and I love it.

It wasn’t intended, but somewhere along the lines, about 17 years ago, Taylor Swift became a part of my identity.

I was eight years old, sitting in the back of the car while we drove up the coast. I heard You Belong With Me and that was it, my heart was stolen (or perhaps glittered). The end result was the same — I was a Swiftie.

Back then, there were only two albums to listen to: Fearless and Taylor Swift’s debut album. I listened to them religiously, wearing out my purple iPod nano and CD player with love songs I was too young to understand.

It didn’t matter. For the first time in my life, I had a thing, a passion to share with friends and a soundtrack to twirl to.

Telegraph journalist Emily Kowal is beyond excited to be seeing Taylor Swift live. Picture: Tim Hunter

In high school, I was the Taylor Swift girl, and teased for decorating my school books with her lyrics and yapping on about her all day.

At uni, I used every excuse I could to turn the conversation to Taylor, writing an advertising essay about Swift’s brand strategy.

It’s hard to wrap my mind around just how much the public perception of Taylor has changed in the past few years.

The majority of time I spent loving her, Taylor Swift was considered uncool, cringey, dorky and calculating.

She’s still those things — but that’s why we love her.

As she said in her Time Person of The Year article: To be considered calculating isn’t an insult, it’s a compliment.

Finally the general public sees it too.

Kowal, aged 13, getting ready for the Red concert in 2013.

And with her sister Molly Cassel at the 2018 Reputation show.

This 17-year love affair has led me to do crazy things.

I have been lucky enough to see her three times — Red, 1989, and Reputation.

My dream is to one day be near the front of the stage for a Taylor concert, and this year it in finally happening.

It’s come at a ridiculous cost, like spending over $300 and hundreds of hours hand-beading a costume, calling a radio station 1000 times to win tickets, spending $5000 to see her perform every night in Sydney, and driving those around me crazy with Taylor Swift folklore.

But it also makes me unbelievably happy.

Kowal says the Swift phenomenon is as much about friendship as it is about music.

It’s easy to trivialise and laugh over Swift’s cultural impact, to ridicule the constant media attention, friendship bracelets and wild fan outfits.

Yes, it is silly. But isn’t everything?

Nobody bats an eye when Australians scream, weep and throw themselves into a sporting grand final. In Victoria, the state has a public holiday for the AFL zenith — imagine the fanfare that would ensue if it only happened every six years.

This is Swifties’ reality — the last time Taylor visited the land down under was in 2018.

This concert has been a long time coming.

Her fans aren’t fools. They know her merchandise is extraordinarily expensive, they know she will use every opportunity to resell the same album, the only difference being a new cover. The reality is that we don’t mind. We aren’t forced to partake, we do it because we love it.

We know that Taylor is a marketing genius who has mastered the art of making you feel like you might have a chance of meeting her (even if you know it won’t really happen).

We don’t care.

Taylor’s real power comes from the friendships her music makes.

She is the biggest star in the world, yet she somehow still makes you feel like you are part of a secret club. She’s dorky, awkward and unapologetically herself.

I spend hours making friendship bracelets and buying overpriced merchandise because I live for the small shared smiles that come when I see another fan in public wearing a Taylor Swift-branded item.

It’s the reason I met up with a Swiftie, a complete stranger, to trade tickets for the concert. After swapping our tickets (so we could both go on different nights), the girl I had met just five minutes earlier sealed the deal with a hug, a pinky promise to stay in touch and a sharing of friendship bracelets.

Ready to sparkle at the Eras concerts. Picture: Tim Hunter

Kowal’s devotion to Swift knows no bounds. Picture: Tim Hunter

If life is a party, then Taylor Swift is the host. She is the person who enters the room and has the ability to connect with a crowd of strangers — and when she leaves the room, the party is still laughing.

In a world where loneliness is a huge social issue, Taylor Swift is an icebreaker. She’s bigger than life. Yet, at the same time, she is the girl who spent hours hand-picking and wrapping Christmas presents to send to random fans, who bakes chai sugar cookies and has three cats.

I have seen incredible things come out of the love Taylor Swift fans have for each other, from fans donating tickets to kids in care, to women teaming together to help people who missed out get tickets.

The community will move heaven and earth for another.

It’s never been about just Taylor. It’s about each other.

It’s the reason fans line up for hours to stand outside a stadium, knowing full well they probably won’t hear anything.

It’s the reason fans spent months of their life altruistically helping others get tickets.

It’s the reason a single line from a Taylor Swift song started a trend where fans share bracelets with each other.

The secret little club is out in the open now, but it will never stop being special.

Got a news tip? Email [e-mail]