Swift says she wished she had someone like Watson to look up to when she was younger. She also spoke out against sexism in the media.

Taylor Swift has praised Emma Watson's UN speech on feminism saying that it had an important reach to "real girls living their lives." Kevork Djansezian / Reuters

In an interview on French-Canadian talk show Tout Le Monde En Parle, Swift said she would have "proudly claimed" to be a feminist at an earlier age if she saw Watson's talk when she were younger. Swift continued her praise for Watson saying that she was "happy to live in a world" where Watson spoke about feminism and that it was an "incredible thing" to witness.

Last week, Watson was commended for delivering an inspiring speech about gender equality at the United Nations Headquarters. Carlo Allegri / Reuters

Watson's speech on feminism encouraged Swift to open up and discuss her views on feminism. Below are the highlights from her interview that was aired last night.

I wish I was 12 years old and i'd been able to watch a video of my favourite actress explaining in such an intellectual, beautiful, poignant way the definition of feminism because I would have understood it and then earlier on in my life i would have proudly claimed that I was a feminist because I would've understood what the word means.

The one thing I do believe as a feminist is that in order for us to have gender equality we have to stop making it a girl fight and we have to stop being so interested in seeing girls trying to tear each other down – it has to be more about cheering each other on as women.

So many girls out there say 'I'm not a feminist' because they think it means something angry or disgruntled or complaining. They picture like rioting and picketing, it is not that at all, it just simply means that you believe that women and men should have equal rights and opportunities.

To say you're not a feminist means that you think men should have more rights and opportunities than women.

"I think when it comes to females in the media you'll see something that kind of upsets me which is that females are pinned up against each other more so than men. You know you never see 'vote for who has the better butt - this actor or this actor.' It's always this female singer and this female singer."