Laura Cadman is an 18-year-old first year studying Fine Art at Lancaster, who’s gathered a large following of 10,000 followers on Instagram due to her likeness to Taylor Swift.

Having been a self confessed “huge Swiftie” since age 11, her likeness only started to get properly recognised in 2012, before her following blew up when she was featured in two articles for Seventeen magazine earlier this year.

On the worst thing about it, Laura said she quite frequently gets a lot of hate comments on her Instagram.

She said: “Although I have never actually claimed that I think that I look like Taylor (I personally don’t), people still argue on my photos. I’ve had a number of comments such as ‘you’re never going to meet Taylor’/’you’re ugly’ – you know, the usual. But it’s cool because my followers defend me nine times out of 10. I also wish people would find me pretty/attractive because I’m me.”

Laura knows it has some advantages though, like it being the ultimate ice breaker.

She continued: “People know who I am even if I don’t know them. But it’s a cool conversation starter I guess.”

She knows it’s a high praise as well: “It’s the biggest compliment ever to say that I look like her, so I’ll take it.”

She’s also made a lot of new friends through her Taylor escapades, as fans approach her at concerts and have a photo and a chat.

Laura’s also been asked for autograph a lot previously: “When I was in London a guy handing out newspapers/leaflets refused to believe I wasn’t her. I constantly get whispers in public and I’ve had people take photos of me loads of times and every so often people ask to take a photo with me, which is cool.”

For her, the most intense time was during Taylor’s recent 1989 tour, she said: “I got completely swamped and about 50 people asked for photos with me! I usually can’t go along with it if people actually think I am her – my American accent is poor and because I don’t really think I look like her that much I guess I don’t have the confidence. I’ve also been offered lookalike jobs but I don’t think it’s what I want to do right now.”

One eager follower went as far as to make a fan account for Laura. She’s received her fair share of weird comments as well: “Mmmm my lucky lips you look like Taylor,” being one of her personal stalker-esque faves.

Laura also shares the love of singing that her idol does. She said: “I love singing but I don’t think I have a particularly interesting/powerful voice. My dad is a singer-songwriter and he thinks I can sing, but I don’t know if I could ever pursue it because I feel like the most important part of music is writing your own lyrics and I’m shameful in that department.”