It's my pleasure to inform you that Taylor Swift is continuing to bless us with her presence in our lives, this time with an ELLE magazine cover that could've been pulled straight from the Red era.
To accompany the frankly iconic photoshoot, Taylor herself wrote a super personal list of 30 things she's learned in life before she turns 30 this December.
Here's everything we learned from Taylor's list...
1. She turned off comments on her Instagram posts so she doesn't rely on the approval of strangers to boost her self-esteem.
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"I think it’s healthy for your self-esteem to need less internet praise to appease it, especially when three comments down you could unwittingly see someone telling you that you look like a weasel that got hit by a truck and stitched back together by a drunk taxidermist," Taylor says.
2. She's working hard to love and accept her body the way it is.
"I learned to stop hating every ounce of fat on my body. I worked hard to retrain my brain that a little extra weight means curves, shinier hair, and more energy," Taylor writes. "I think a lot of us push the boundaries of dieting, but taking it too far can be really dangerous. There is no quick fix. I work on accepting my body every day."
3. She was "completely terrified to go on tour" following the terrorist attack at Ariana Grande's Manchester concert and the mass shooting at a concert in Las Vegas in 2017.
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"My fear of violence has continued into my personal life," she says. "I carry QuikClot army grade bandage dressing, which is for gunshot or stab wounds. Websites and tabloids have taken it upon themselves to post every home address I’ve ever had online. You get enough stalkers trying to break into your house and you kind of start prepping for bad things."
4. Taylor unequivocally believes victims of sexual assault when they come forward.
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"Coming forward is an agonising thing to go through. I know because my sexual assault trial was a demoralising, awful experience," she writes. "I believe victims because I know firsthand about the shame and stigma that comes with raising your hand and saying, 'This happened to me.' It’s something no one would choose for themselves."
5. She's learned to recognise her childhood scars and work through them rather than letting them take over.
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"I still have recurring flashbacks of sitting at lunch tables alone or hiding in a bathroom stall, or trying to make a new friend and being laughed at. In my twenties I found myself surrounded by girls who wanted to be my friend. So I shouted it from the rooftops, posted pictures, and celebrated my newfound acceptance into a sisterhood, without realising that other people might still feel the way I did when I felt so alone," Taylor writes about her infamous ~squad~.
6. Her public feuds have taught her that a very simple way to deal with petty conflict is to laugh at it.
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"A few years ago, someone started an online hate campaign by calling me a snake on the internet," she says about her drama with Kim Kardashian. "The fact that so many people jumped on board with it led me to feeling lower than I’ve ever felt in my life, but I can’t tell you how hard I had to keep from laughing every time my 63-foot inflatable cobra named Karyn appeared onstage in front of 60,000 screaming fans."
7. She took time to educate herself on politics before speaking about her beliefs, but recognises that it's her responsibility to use her influence for good.
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"Invoking racism and provoking fear through thinly-veiled messaging is not what I want from our leaders, and I realised that it actually is my responsibility to use my influence against that disgusting rhetoric," she says. "I’m going to do more to help. We have a big race coming up next year."
Oh, and she also taught us some less ~philosophical~ lessons...
8. Learn how to make a good, easy cocktail!
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Taylor recommends "Pimm’s cups, Aperol spritzes, Old-Fashioneds, and Mojitos".
9. And find some recipes you know you can crush in the kitchen.
I need Taylor to know that I'll be teaching myself to perfect the recipes she shouted out: spaghetti and meatballs à la Ina Garten, this chicken recipe from Nigella Lawson, and Jamie Oliver's fajitas.
10. Command strips are good for if you don't want to make holes in your walls.
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Something tells me Taylor Swift doesn't rent a one bedroom like me and can probably nail things into her walls, but I will personally be taking this one on board.
11. Take vitamins, guys!
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"I take L-theanine, which is a natural supplement to help with stress and anxiety. I also take magnesium for muscle health and energy," writes Taylor Swift, aka The Mom Friend.
12. Make sure you take care of your skin, and probably don't use a Sharpie as eyeliner.
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"After my teen years and early twenties of sleeping in my makeup ... I felt like I needed to start being nicer to my skin," Taylor says. "I now moisturise my face every night and put on body lotion after I shower, not just in the winter, but all year round, because why can’t I be soft during all the seasons?!"
13. And finally, we should play and experiment with fashion, and she'll never acknowledge that Bleachella was a look.
"If you don’t look back at pictures of some of your old looks and cringe, you’re doing it wrong," she writes. "See: Bleachella."
You can read Taylor's full list of life lessons here. ELLE's April issue hits newsstands on 26 March.
CORRECTION
The terrorist attack at Ariana Grande's Manchester concert happened in May 2017. A previous version of this post misstated the date.
