Taylor Swift commands the most loyal fandom of any modern female pop star, says Brandon Hernsberger, a professor of English and pop culture at Houston Community College who has written extensively on the Taylor Swift fan base. Swift has a whopping 83 million followers on Twitter and 116 million followers on Instagram. “More than any other fan group,” he says, “her fans have aligned with her from the beginning.” That means that, while Swift is widely considered a pop icon for teenage girls, her most longtime, die-hard fans have grown up and stuck around, now straddling either side of 30. The intensity of their commitment is impressive. One millennial fan typically arrives at Swift concerts eight hours before they begin; another spent $500 on plush replicas of Swift’s two Scottish fold cats, posting pictures on Twitter to try to get the singer’s attention.