Things You Didn’t Know About Taylor Swift

In our modern age, it’s rare for even the smallest tidbit of information about a bona-fide superstar to not become a common fact. This is especially the case with Taylor Swift, who has every facet of her life dissected and passed on by a passionate fan base and gossip media. When you have a web site devoted to listing every one of your exes, privacy becomes a very sensitive topic, as Swift is well aware. However, beyond her basic romantic backgrounds and musical upbringing, there remain some facts about Swift that are unknown to some casual fans:

Taylor is visually impaired
Swift wears a very specific type of glasses on her downtime, though on stage she often opts for contact lenses. This isn’t because she’s insecure of the appearance, though. Swift’s performances demand significant movement, and the last thing she would want is for her very unique glasses to fall off and break. So contact lenses for live shows it is. That doesn’t mean Swift never wears them for a performance. She rocks the glasses on the music videos for “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together” and “You Belong With Me”.

Real tattoos are a no-no
Even though she has flaunted pretty yet fake body ink in the past, Swift’s opinions on real tattoos are lukewarm at best. She has expressed in the past how difficult it would be to choose a phrase or image that would remain imprinted on her body forever. If Swift were to get one, it would likely be of the ‘13’ that she frequently draws on her arm or hand, filling the number with nail polish. Although 13 may represent bad luck to some, it is Swift’s lucky number — especially since she was born on December 13th.

Taylor was once in charge of killing praying mantises
Well, I’m sure the official title would be “manager of pest prevention.” But before Swift become one of the most famous artists in the world, she worked with her family on the Christmas tree farm she lived on. As her dad was typically in charge of the heavy labor, Swift’s role was to make sure the trees were absent of bugs before tying them to the buyer’s roof. She would have to knock off praying mantis pods from the trees, which doesn’t sound nearly as fun as playing sold-out arenas. “I forgot to check one time and they hatched all over these people’s house. And there were hundreds of thousands of them,” Swift told Jay Leno in 2008. “They had little kids, and they couldn’t kill of them because that’d be a bad Christmas.”

Taylor’s grandma was a talented opera singer, and one of Swift’s first influences
This is one of the more commonly known facts about Swift, but it bears repeating. Swift and her maternal grandmother, Marjorie Finlay, share a resemblance and musical genes, the reason why Swift calls Finlay “one of my first inspirations.” Other than the fact that her maiden name was Moehlenkamp, there’s not much info about Finlay — other than the fact that Swift is enamored with memories of her grandmother singing. “Everything I wrote [in her early years] came from that experience, what I observed happening around me.”

Taylor plans to poke fun at Harry Styles on an upcoming track
In more little-known tattoo news, Swift is currently penning a song that touches on the tattoo miscue of One Direction’s Harry Styles, who had the lyrics to Temper Trap’s “Sweet Disposition” tattooed incorrectly on himself. Styles apparently didn’t know the lyrics were incorrect until Swift pointed them out, and now after they have broken up Swift is allegedly seizing the opportunity to embarrass her ex. “Taylor knows just how sensitive Harry is about it so she’s planning to mock him in a new song,” a source told The Sun.

Taylor has a “secret crush” on Hanson’s Taylor Hanson
Taylor Swift and Taylor Hanson share first names, which would likely be a source of humor if they ever hooked up – which is something that Swift apparently still dreams about. Swift opened up to ABC’s George Stephanopoulos last year about the crush, in addition to other fun tidbits like her favorite comfort food (Pop Tarts and Cinnamon Toast Crunch) and her hidden talent (antique shopping). A lightning round of questions is often best for getting odd facts out of relatively reclusive celebrities.

Taylor wrote her own SNL monologue
Extremely rare for a host on Saturday Night Live, Taylor Swift both wrote and delivered her opening monologue, a staple for hosts ever since the show kicked off in 1975. She was the first celebrity to do so, and Swift did it in an expectedly musical fashion. She performed “My Monologue”, a then-new track that poked fun at Kanye and Joe Jonas, in addition to adoration for then-boyfriend Taylor Lautner. As Swift seemingly changes who she pokes fun at and dates every month or two, it was a humorous and innovative snapshot of Taylor Swift in November of 2009.