Pop megastar Taylor Swift says in her new Netflix documentary Miss Americana that she started speaking out about politics because she needed “to be on the right side of history,” according to footage seen in a new trailer for the movie.

Miss Americana, which Netflix is set to release Jan. 31, follows Swift during a pivotal moment in her career when she seeks more independence and personal freedom from the strictures of the music industry. Part of her rebellion included speaking out in support of Democratic politicians.

“Throughout my whole career, label executives would just say, ‘A nice girl doesn’t force her opinions on people. A nice girl smiles and waves and says thank you,'” Swift says in the trailer.

“I became the person everyone wanted me to be.”

But that all changed when Swift started to become politically active, leveraging her enormous social media following among young fans to promote Democratic politicians and candidates.

“I want to do this. I need to be on the right side of history,” the singer explains in the movie.

“It feels fucking awesome,” she added. “I feel really good about not feeling muzzled anymore. And it was my own doing.”

Taylor Swift says in the trailer that changing her mindset was challenging but ultimately rewarding.

“I had to deconstruct an entire belief system, toss it out, and reject it,” she says. “It woke me up from constantly feeling like I was fighting for people’s respect. It was happiness without anyone else’s input.”

The singer recently told Variety that she hopes her music will help “stoke some fires politically.”

Her new song “Only the Young,” which is featured in the documentary, was written in the aftermath of the 2018 midterm elections, which saw Republicans take key seats in the singer’s home state of Tennessee.

“I did think that it would be better for it to come out at a time that it could maybe hopefully stoke some fires politically and maybe engage younger people to form their own views, break away from the pack, and not feel like they need to vote exactly the same way that people in their town are voting,” she told the magazine.

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