Go Ahead Taylor, You Can Be Her Role Model
When Taylor Swift won the Grammy last week I was torn. As a music lover, I was concerned with bubble-gum pop (please,the only thing country about Ms. Swift is her penchant for sequins) winning such a huge award and I clearly wasn’t the only one. Then I thought about the win with my mom hat on and I was quite pleased.
My seven year old daughter adores Taylor Swift. She knows every word to every song on that album of the year and she sings them from dawn ’till dusk. Like all little girls with crushes, she thinks Taylor can do no wrong. After all, she is gorgeous and blond and famous and has pretty dresses and shiny jewelry and gets to sing on stage. What more can a girl ask for?
Here’s what my daughter doesn’t really get yet, but I hope she sees soon. Taylor Swift works…hard. She writes her own songs. Heck, she writes other people’s songs. She uses her own voice when performing live. (Arguably, it is not the strongest but hey, at least it’s not modulated beyond recognition.) She plans her tours from costumes to venues to set decoration. When Hota Kotb followed Ms. Swift on tour I watched and was exhausted by the pace she kept and in awe of the amount of detail she knew about every little piece of the puzzle.
The obvious plus is that she also seems to be a pretty good kid. There are no paparazzi pictures of her drunk or worse-flashing her goods. She handles her self professionally and she mostly stays out of the public eye which probably means she isn’t’ doing anything exciting. What she says, is that when she’s not working she likes to spend time hanging with her family and friends-like a regular nineteen year old girl. As someone whose daughter is looking to this girl for how to be, I’m alright with that too.
Yes, she is sticky-adorable and perky-cute and sometimes a little too giggly for my taste. No, I do not expect celebrities or sports figures to establish the moral compass my kids will follow. That is our job. But I do know that no matter how strong parents are, kids are always going to look outside for influences. In time, parents are uncool no matter what. If my daughter has to look up to someone she sees on television, than I am glad it is Taylor Swift. For all her sequins are backed by good old fashioned work ethic and an obvious gratitude and respect for all that she has earned in her life.
I will take that for my girl, even if it means I have to listen Our Song on a continuous loop. And maybe, someday she’ll even write a song about her mom too.
