Taylor Swift

Taylor Alison Swift was born on December 13, 1989. She was born and raised in Wyomissing, Pennsylvania and has a younger brother named Austin Swift. When she was in fourth grade, she won a national poetry contest with a three-page poem called "Monster In My Closet". When Taylor was 10 years old a computer repairman showed her how to play three chords on a guitar which made her interested in learning the instrument even more. Afterwards, she wrote her first song, "Lucky You". She was a victim of bullying and often wrote songs to express her emotions. She began writing songs regularly and used it to help her from not fitting in at school.

Taylor also started performing at contests, festivals, and fairs around her hometown. By age 11 Taylor went to Nashville hoping to get a big break but was rejected. When she was 12 she devoted an entire summer to writing a 350-page novel, which still hasn’t been released. Taylor attended Hendersonville High School, but was eventually home schooled during her junior and senior years of high school. Taylor’s greatest musical influence is Shania Twain. Taylor’s style always leaned more toward country music even though her grandma was an opera singer. When Taylor was 15 years old, she performed at the Bluebird Café where a producer from Big Machine records discovered her.

In summer of 2008, Taylor released her first self titled album “Taylor Swift”. She sang the song “Tim McGraw” at the Country Music Awards. Her second album “Fearless” came out on November 11, 2008. The album debuted at #1 on the Billboard 200 Album Chart. Her album sales of 592,304 were the highest debut of any country artist in 2008. The lead single from the album, "Love Story," was released on September 12, 2008. The Fearless album includes the "Love Story" music video which is based on Romeo and Juliet. The song has reached #2 on iTunes top downloaded songs and #4 on the Billboard Hot 100. Fifteen weeks after being added to pop radio, "Love Story" also became the first country crossover recording to hit number one on the Nielsen BDS CHR/Top 40 chart in the 16-year-history of the list as well as #1 on the Mediabase Top 40 Chart. The “Fearless Tour” started in the summer of in August of 2009 and in that same year at the MTV music awards she got her first VMA for best female music video “You belong with me”. She was interrupted by rapper Kanye West during the middle of her speech. Taylor thought he was going to say something nice, but didn’t expect Kanye to say that Beyonce’s music video “Single ladies” was the best of all time. Taylor ignored his rude remark at the time and was later asked to come back up on stage by Beyonce to enjoy her moment once again.

On October 25, 2010 she released her third album “Speak Now” which was originally supposed to be called “Enchanted” and is one of the fourteen songs. Her Speak Now Tour is going to start in August of 2011. “Speak Now” has already hit the charts as one of the top 100 hits. “Speak Now” is supposed to be one of the biggest pop country albums of the year.

The reason why Taylor Swift is my hero is because she overcomes everything one deals with in life from bullying to bad breakups to not fitting in. She not only writes about what others have done, but also apologizes to those she has hurt. She is slowly proving that she will not become the next Lindsey Lohan or Britney Spears. Through her songs and everyday life, Taylor shows that she is a normal person who lives a normal life regardless of all the media attention and negative reviews. She has inspired me to always keep my head up and to also play guitar. Her positive attitude through life has made a great impact on my life and also many others, which is why she is my hero.