My relationship with Taylor Swift has been a decade of ups and downs. I’ve grown up with her: When I was 15, I would passionately scream-sing to “Fifteen”; at 22, I sobbed along with “All Too Well,” wishing I had an ex-boyfriend’s scarf to cry into. Swift may be an incredibly privileged white woman, but as a mixed race woman of colour, I find that our different backgrounds don’t matter. She has an uncanny ability to write lyrics that take a single experience—the romance of dancing in the refrigerator light with someone you love, the delight in having your partner carry your groceries, the joy and loneliness of being 22—and turn it into relatable, deep-seated emotion. Her songs thoughtfully articulate the complexities of being a young woman, a demo that’s often dismissed in both society and the music industry. Her songs validate my experience—and the experience of many other young women searching for their lives to be reflected back to them in pop culture. Her brand is the embodiment of young women’s power, both in the music industry and in general. She uses her relatable experience to uplift our worth in society.

So yes, you could say I’m a fan.

But being a Taylor Swift fan comes with its trials. In 2016, she made a point of not speaking up during a fraught U.S. election, subsequently allowing for white nationalists to hold her up as their “Aryan Princess,” and even then, she still didn’t say a word in response. Given that Taylor is known for clapping back at critics, I anxiously wondered why this was the one controversial issue she decided to remain quiet on. I listened to her damning Kanye West phone call with a sinking-gut feeling—which is also how I felt listening to the A-side of Reputation. To me, Taylor’s brand is most powerful when she’s doing what she does best: writing heart-achingly relatable lyrics. Reputation focused on the drama and scandal of being a misunderstood celebrity, quite literally embodying the snake emoji that Kim Kardashian labelled her as. While this makes for an excellent celebrity news cycle, it made for a hollow-feeling album for fans who ached for songs with less venom and more heart.

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Still, when Swift announced the arrival of her new album, Lover, I was excited, and a little nervous. Could she make the comeback she needed after a wobbly Reputation era that had diehard fans like myself questioning if we had a future together? Feeling cautious and excited, I listened to Lover in its entirety and knew immediately that the old Taylor hadn’t gone anywhere after all (as she so famously touted); she just needed a little time to process a traumatic period of her life. (And don’t we all?) What’s struck me most in the aftermath of the album release is that whenever I quiz friends on what their favourite track is, I get a different answer (mine is “Death by a Thousand Cuts,” for the record). To me, this so thoroughly illustrates why this album is such a successful comeback: to have so many songs that deeply resonate with different people on different levels? That’s the Taylor I know and love.

Like perfectly lined up dominos, Taylor uses Lover, and the extensive promotion around it, to knock down each criticism thrown her way with poise and her signature lyrical wit:

Her lack of vocal feminism in the past

In “The Man,” Taylor highlights the many double standards she’s faced in the music industry and calls out the way her accomplishments and personal life have been smeared in the media—though they would be celebrated if she was the opposite sex. Her timely dig at Leonard DiCaprio is a delightfully savage addition. (Let’s take a moment to remember the actor’s self-titled “Pussy Posse” friend group from the ’90s, who prided themselves on chasing as many women as possible. Taylor’s conquests aren’t looking so shocking in comparison now, are they?)

Her inability to maintain a steady, healthy relationship

The album (in particular, “London Boy,” “Cornelia Street” and “Afterglow”) paints a realized, complex portrait of a modern long-term relationship in all its joy and anguish. “I once believed love would be burning red, but it’s golden,” Taylor reflectively sings in the closing track “Daylight,” nodding to her Red album’s titular track from 2012. The growth!

Her involvement in petty drama

She declares her mantra “I want to be defined by the things that I love” on the outro of “Daylight,” and, of course, executes it in real life by patching up bad blood with former foe Katy Perry. A refreshing outlook, particularly coming off her revenge-themed Reputation era.

Her previously nonexistent political activism

Taylor invited prominent members of the LGBTQ community to share the screen with her in her video for “You Need to Calm Down,” and brought the same group on stage with her at the VMAs to accept the award for Video of the Year. In a final checkmate, Taylor used her acceptance speech to send the White House a direct message by inviting all fans to sign a petition supporting the Equality Act, which is also featured in the video’s call to action.

And so, in her seventh album, Taylor showed that, just like me and the rest of her dedicated fans, she’s been steadily growing, learning, falling in and out of love, experiencing new cities, making mistakes, and processing trauma. I’ve certainly had missteps over the past decade—how could I fault her for doing the same, especially when my deep admiration for her stems from her intense relatability? This heartfelt comeback reflected the most powerful aspects of her brand: her authenticity, her finely tuned talent, her vulnerability—she’s a complex, empowered woman. To me, in Lover, Taylor has shown that just like the fans that have grown alongside her, she has capacity to learn from her mistakes, own up to her faults, and discover herself as an adult. As for all the Taylor-bashing that’s become increasingly popular over the past couple years? I’d very much like to be excluded from that narrative.

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