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What we learned from Taylor Swift's 'GQ' cover


Sometimes it's easy to forget that the ruler of the Girl Squad is only 25.

Having been a bold-faced name since before she could drive, Taylor Swift has absorbed enough lessons from the school of life to rival most Baby Boomers.

And those pearls of wisdom were on display in her cover interview for the November issue of GQ.

Among the bits of Swiftdom we picked up:

Hey, conspiracy theorists: Bad Blood was not about Katy Perry or any one guy

"I never said anything that would point a finger in the specific direction of one specific person, and I can sleep at night knowing that. I knew the song would be assigned to a person, and the easiest mark was someone who I didn't want to be labeled with this song. It was not a song about heartbreak. It was about the loss of friendship."

It took her a long time to cope with the way the media portrayed her but now she's cool with it

"You take your creative license and create things that are larger than life. You can write things like I get drunk on jealousy but you'll come back each time you leave, 'cause darling I'm a nightmare dressed like a daydream. That is not my approach to relationships. But is it cool to write the narrative of a girl who's crazy but seductive but glamorous but nuts but manipulative? That was the character I felt the media had written for me, and for a long time I felt hurt by it. I took it personally. But as time went by, I realized it was kind of hilarious."

All she needed to know about the music business, she learned from VH1's Behind the Music

"When other kids were watching normal shows, I'd watch Behind the Music. And I would see these bands that were doing so well, and I'd wonder what went wrong And what I established in my brain was that a lack of self-awareness was always the downfall So self-awareness has been such a huge part of what I try to achieve on a daily basis. It's less about reputation management and strategy and vanity than it is about trying desperately to preserve self-awareness, since that seems to be the first thing to go out the door when people find success."