11 Things You Didn’t Know About Taylor Swift’s Childhood

Chas Newkey-Burden has written a new biography of Taylor Swift, the full story of her stratospheric rise to fame; all any dedicated Swifty needs to know about the pop superstar who’s taking over the world. We bet there are some things about the Fearless singer’s childhood that will surprise you!

1. She was a go-getter from birth.

Via cdn03.cdn.justjaredjr.com

“Within hours of her birth, the baby girl had already made quite an impression on a member of staff at the hospital. A paediatrician told Andrea: ‘She’s a really good-natured baby, but she knows exactly what she wants and how to get it!’”

2. She grew up on a Christmas Tree Farm.

Via tumblr.com

“Taylor first lived on the 11-acre Christmas-tree farm that had been the property of Scott’s father in the past. Based in the town of Cumru, it provided a useful additional income for the family and allowed them to live in increasing splendour as Taylor grew up. To her, the place seemed enormous. ‘And it was the most magical, wonderful place in the world,’ she has said.”

3. She once let praying mantises infest her neighbourhood.

Via 216.119.94.57

“The farm also provided some gainful employment for Taylor during her childhood. She was given a peculiar odd job – picking the eggs of praying mantises off trees. So she would move between the many Christmas trees and remove as many of the eggs as she could. The importance of this job was highlighted when she forgot to check the trees on one occasion and praying mantises hatched in homes around the neighbourhood. ‘There were hundreds of thousands of them,’ she recalled during an interview with Jay Leno on The Tonight Show. ‘And they had little kids and they couldn’t kill them because that’d be a bad Christmas.’ “

4. She used to send herself to her room as punishment.

Via static5.businessinsider.com

“She was rarely disciplined harshly as a child – mostly because she proved to be her own toughest critic, a self-disciplinarian of sorts. ‘When I was naughty as a kid, I used to send myself to my own room,’ she told the Daily Mail. Andrea (her mother) was no pushover – far from it, in fact – but she hesitated to discipline Taylor because her daughter was ‘so hard on herself’. “

5. She won a national poetry contest in the 4th grade. (Read an extract below!)

Via poetryfoundation.org

“In fourth grade, she entered a national poetry contest with a piece of work she had written entitled Monster In My Closet. It included the lines: ‘There’s a monster in my closet and I don’t know what to do / Have you ever seen him? / Has he ever pounced on you?’ It turned into a long poem and one that Taylor selected carefully from her collection. ‘I picked the most gimmicky one I had; I didn’t want to get too dark on them,’ she said.”

6. She was bullied at school.

Via wordpress.com

“She had been experiencing unpleasant bullying from classmates at school. Unfortunately for her, a number of factors in her life were enough to make classmates jealous of her – her comfortable home life and wealthy parents, to name two. To add to their thinly veiled envy, she was beginning to be written about in the media. This press attention was a mixed blessing for Taylor. While it was flattering and helpful for her career, it tended to prompt spikes in the teasing and shunning she was suffering.”

7. She sang the National Anthem in front of Jay Z.

Via www1.pictures.gi.zimbio.com

“She sang at the US Open tennis tournament and then at a Philadelphia 76ers match. It was April 2002. […] As she left the court after this latter performance, she saw the famous rapper Jay-Z sitting in the audience. As she walked past, he leaned in and gave the youngster a congratulatory high-five. She was so thrilled: she has said that she boasted about that encounter ‘for, like, a year straight’.”

8. When she was trying to make it in Nashville, she just walked in to record labels and handed them a CD.

Via musicnewsnashville.com

“Taylor had given the demo CD a simple design. The front cover had a photograph of her face on it and the words ‘Call me’. On the back cover were her telephone number and her email address. As they drove down the road, Taylor would suddenly shriek as she saw a label. ‘That’s Mercury Records!’ she would cry. ‘Pull over! I need to give them my demo tape!’ When she arrived at the reception desk she would hand over her homemade CD and tell them, ‘Hey, I’m 11, and I want a record deal.’ Then, echoing the slogan printed on the front cover, she would add with a smile: ‘Call me!’ It was a sweet pitch, but not a finely honed one. Later, looking back at this with the advantage of time and experience, she was able to smile. She would say: ‘How did that work out for me? It didn’t!’”

9. She was one of Vanity Fair’s ‘Rising Stars’ at 14 years old.

Via memberfiles.freewebs.com

“She posed in Abercrombie & Fitch clothes in a shoot for Vanity Fair magazine called ‘Rising Stars’. This promotional gimmick saw the retailer link up with potential stars of the future and drape them in its autumnal range. After Dymtrow had sent them a press kit about Taylor, they invited her to take part in the shoot. In Taylor’s photos, she wore a white top with denim jeans. She portrayed a heartbroken girl, even wiping away a tear from her eye with a handkerchief.”

10. She was the youngest ever staff songwriter at Sony!

Via cdn.americansongwriter.com

“Soon, she would be contacted by the mighty Sony. They snapped her up as a songwriter to compose potential tracks for their existing artists. She agreed and duly became the youngest staff songwriter ever hired by the esteemed Sony/Tree publishing house. The significance and symbolism of this is stark: a girl in her mid-teens was signed by one of the world’s biggest record labels to compose songs for artists many years older than her.”

Read all about this and more in Chas Newkey-Burden’s new biography: Taylor Swift, The Whole Story

This compelling book is packed full of fascinating details revealing the true Taylor – what drives, motivates and moves her, how she overcame the challenges that loomed on the road to fame and looks at how authentic her wholesome image is, plus the truth about her relationships with Harry Styles, Jake Gyllenhaal and Conor Kennedy and who she’s really talking about on her tracks.

The full portrait of a girl who could so easily have faded into the background – but who blossomed in the spotlight into a grounded, graceful and inspiring young woman.

Download a free sample here: http://amzn.to/1fIkHds

Pre-order the ebook here: http://amzn.to/1dDdN9b

Out on 30th December 2013!