In Her Own Words

Tonight's story is about a girl who taught herself guitar at twelve — with fingers too small to reach the chords — and whose family packed up and moved to Nashville two years later to help her chase a dream the world kept saying no to. Through Taylor Swift's journey from a Pennsylvania bedroom songwriter to writing every word of every song on her albums — and bravely re-recording six of them when her own music was taken from her — families discover that no one else gets to write your story, wrapped in calming breath work, guided visualization, and affirmations to send little dreamers off to sleep believing their voice is worth using.

Transcript

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Welcome to Future Me, the podcast for dreamers, doers, and champions in the making. Get cozy, take a breath, and let's begin. Did you know Taylor Swift has written or co-written every single song on every single one of her albums? Every word, every melody, every story. She started writing songs at age 12 with a guitar that was nearly as big as she was, sitting in her bedroom in Pennsylvania. She didn't wait for someone to hand her the perfect song. She wrote it herself. And then she wrote another one. And another one. More than 200 songs in counting. All of them hers. Tonight I want to tell you the story of how that girl from Pennsylvania decided that no matter what the world said about her, she was going to write her own story. On her own terms, in her own words. Let's get cozy, settled in, let everything from today just fall away. Take a slow deep breath in and breathe it all the way out. One more time, breathe in, and breathe out. Let your whole body feel warm and heavy and at rest. Good. You're here now. And tonight's story is one of my favorites. It's about a girl who felt different, who moved to a new city chasing a dream that everyone around her said was too big, who got told no so many times she could have papered her bedroom walls with rejection letters, and who decided every single time to pick up her pen and write the next chapter herself. Her name is Taylor Swift, and her story is for every child who has ever had something to say and wondered if anyone would listen. Taylor Allison Swift was born on December 13th, 1989, in West Reading, Pennsylvania. From a very young age, Taylor loved two things above everything else: stories and performing. She did musical theater, she took vocal lessons, she performed in local productions, and somewhere along the way, she discovered something that would change everything. She discovered that she could write. Not just write, write songs. Songs that sounded like her feelings had finally found a way out into the world. At 12 years old, she taught herself to play guitar. Even though her small fingers made some of the chords nearly impossible, she practiced until her fingertips were sore, and then she kept practicing. When Taylor was 14, her family made a decision that took enormous courage. They packed their lives and moved to Nashville, Tennessee, the heart of the American music industry, so that Taylor could chase her dream properly. She walked into record label after record label with her demo tapes. And one by one, they said no. Too young, too different, not quite what we're looking for. But one small label company, a brand new company called Big Machine Records, said yes. And Taylor Swift began to record her first album. She was 16 years old when it came out. She had written or co-written every song on it, and it changed country music forever because Taylor brought something to it that felt completely new. The honest, unfiltered voice of a teenager writing about real feelings, real friendships, real heartbreak. Kids her age heard it and thought, she sounds like me. She understands. Album after album followed, each one bigger than the last, each one written entirely in Taylor's own voice, on her own terms. She crossed from country into pop, into folk, and back again, always reinventing, always growing, always surprising. But then something happened that tested her in a way that was about far more than music. The company that owned the rights to her first six albums was sold, and the new owner was someone Taylor did not trust. The music she had poured her heart into, the song she had written as a teenager sitting on her bedroom floor, no longer felt like hers. And so she made a decision that the whole world called extraordinary. She decided to re-record all six albums from scratch. Every song, note by note, word by word. She called the new versions her Taylor's versions, a signal to her fans and to the world that no one could take her story away from her. If they wanted the real Taylor Swift, they knew where to find it. The fans showed up, millions of them. They streamed the new versions. They bought them. They followed Taylor on what became one of the most successful concert tours in the history of live music. Because Taylor Swift had done something that very few people are brave enough to do. She had chosen herself, her words, her story, her terms. And the world had never loved her more for it. I want to ask you something. Is there something you want to say? Something you feel inside that you haven't quite found the words for yet? Maybe it's a feeling. Maybe it's an idea. Maybe it's a story you've been carrying around, waiting for the right moment. Taylor should have felt that too, from the very beginning. She had things inside her that needed to come out, and she found her way to say them through songs. Your way might be different. It might be writing, it might be drawing, or painting, it might be the way you talk to your friends, or the way you comfort someone who is sad, or the ideas you come up with that no one else thinks of. You have a real voice, a real, unique, one-of-a-kind voice that the world has never heard before. And the most important thing Taylor Swift ever did wasn't write a hit song or sell out a stadium. It was deciding very early on that her voice was worth something. That what she had to say mattered. Your voice matters too. Whatever it sounds like, however it comes out, wherever it takes you, the world is waiting for it. Let's say these phrases together. Let every word be yours. I have something to say, and it's worth saying. I write my own story on my own terms. No does not mean never, it means not yet. I choose myself, my voice, and my dream. I am future me. I am future me. As you drift towards sleep tonight, I want you to imagine you're sitting somewhere quiet and comfortable. Maybe it's your room. Maybe it's somewhere outside. Somewhere that feels completely yours. And you have something in your hand. Maybe a pen. Maybe an instrument. Maybe just your own two hands, ready to build, or create, or make. Something inside you starts to come out. It is exactly what you wanted to say. Exactly you. And it is beautiful. That thing you just imagined, it is waiting for you. It already exists inside you. You just have to find your way to let it out. And you will. You are creative, you are original, and your story is only just beginning. Good night, dreamer. See you next time on Future Me. A note for parents. Taylor Swift's decision to re-record her albums is one of the most powerful lessons in ownership and self-respect that pop culture has produced in recent years. If your child is still awake, or tomorrow morning, you might ask, is there something you've been wanting to say, or make, or try that you haven't yet? Then give them your full, unhurried attention. Sometimes kids just need to know their creative instincts are worth taking seriously. Taylor Swift wrote her first song at 12. Your child's creative life has already begun, whether they know it or not. An important thing you can do is notice it, name it, and celebrate it.