All teenage girls know the emotional words of super star Taylor Swift and love her songs for the relentless identification they can share with her. She sings constantly of her trials with boys and all about “coming undone”, “kissing in the rain” and some sort of fight at 2AM. She is a beacon of what every girl goes through… or should go through.

Personally, I am a huge Taylor Swift fan. Have all of her songs- know every word too. Her lyrics are truly inspiring to say the least. But, I have only just had a strange epiphany. I’ve always thought that I could relate to her so easily because she sang of everything I was going through… or thought I was going through. Now that I think about it, I’ve experienced almost none of the things she has ever sang of.

Last year, I liked a boy A LOT for a long period of time. But, now that I have stopped, I realized that I made him out to be a boy he was not. I created, essentially, a fake identity for this boy that made him… just like all the boys Taylor Swift sings about. I can indefinitely say that my imagination was fueled by the lyrics she sang; I wanted my relationships with boys to be just like hers. I craved to go through all that she was: kissing boys in the rain, “coming undone”, being heart broken by a guy and battling with how I felt about different boys. There really was an intense amount of pressure to feel the exact same way she did and that stole my attention from other things in my life.

I’m only 13. Why should I have to be feeling this way? Not to shed a negative light on Taylor Swift or bash her but she is a large part of my unnecessary, constant stress over boys. I shouldn’t have to worry so much about whether a boy likes me or not or who I should like next. I’m young. So, so young. I don’t need this. I should not need boys and Taylor Swift kind of makes me feel like I should. That part of my life can wait. I should be focused on other, immensely-more-important things like my education and friends and what I want to do with my life. No stupid boy should take up all my time or be the center of my world. I see that now. Only one Taylor Swift song could’ve possibly ensued those feelings on me (Fifteen) but didn’t as it was overpowered by the majority of her other songs. Songs that- as I listened to them over and over- evoked unreal feelings out of me causing me to lose myself in them.

Taylor Swift undoubtedly has great talent, but young girls like me should be careful to not get too wrapped up in what she sings as it should not apply to our lives yet and not feel pressured to make it apply.