Taylor Swift is the music sensation that came on the scene as a young girl and found almost instant success with her singing and songwriting. The talented mega star has the ability to turn any life situation into a number one top of the charts hit. She’s been the topic of multiple media releases but there are still many things about her that fans don’t yet know. Here are twenty things about Taylor Swift that you didn’t know.

1. Her parents knew she was destined for greatness from the cradle

When little Taylor was born, her parents wanted to choose the perfect name. You might ask the question, what’s in a name? Well, according to them, having an androgenous name would give her an extra boost in the world of business. They wanted their little one to have every advantage for getting ahead in life. This is why they chose a name that wasn’t too feminine, nor did it go too far the other way. She was named after the legendary James Taylor, famous for his singing and songwriting. Could that have had any influence on her rising to super stardom in the same line of work? We think that they just may be onto something here.

2. Her mom exposed her to music before she was even born

We’ve heard a lot about shaping your children’s destiny by introducing them to a variety of audio experiences in-vitro. Taylor’s mom took this very seriously. We’ve learned that whle she was pregnant with Taylor, she had a serious addiction to the band Def Leppard. She is reported to have listened to the group practically non-stop while Taylor was still in the womb. Is it possible that this early exposure to music helped to shape her fondness for music? Did it give her the inspiration to pursue a musical career? It does seem like Taylor was pre-programmed to achieve greatness from an early age. We all know how phenomenal her talents truly are. It just could be that her mother is responsible for helping in the creation of her wealth of talent that she has been sharing with the world since before puberty. It gives the rest of us parents something to think about.

3. Her name appears on every release

This is something that doesn’t happen too often in a singer/songwriter’s career. Taylor Swift is credited on every song that she has released to the public. She has either written them all herself, or has co-written them. Most artists will perform songs that have been written by other artists on their albums, but not Taylor. She has the ability and the drive to fill an album with original works, so there is no need to look for material outside of her own talent. Granted, about half of her songs do feature a co-writer, but this is still an amazing feat. This is one of the things that makes her so unique in the music industry. There are so many songs inside of her, that she could fill volumes on her own.

4. Music wasn’t her first choice

Some people know what they want to be at an early age, but most of us consider a lot of different options before setting into a career. In this regard, Taylor was no different than the rest of us. Her first choice was to become a financial adviser. It seems that Taylor was destined for the music industry because there are so many different things that pushed her in this direction. We think that if Taylor still has an interest in pursuing her original goal, she’d make a great financial advisor. Just look at the fortune she’s amassed already. It looks like there’s no end to her talents.

5. She can write more than music

Taylor Swift has a way with words, and when they’re put to music, people want to hear them. This is no big secret, but most of her fans don’t know that she spent a whole summer writing a novel. Taylor was still a teenager the summer that she dedicated her time to putting down her fantasy about a shark that washed up onto the dock of the shore house that her family owned. She has a creative imagination and instead of being out doing the things that teenagers do, she chose to spend her time doing something that she truly loved, and that was writing. If Taylor couldn’t write, she would probably live a miserable existence. She has an amazing mind that is fueled by an almost mystical inspiration to combine words and their meanings in a way that people can easily relate to.

6. She’s also super brainy

You would think that such dedication to one particular thing would be a distraction from her studies. If you’re like most people, you’re really good at one particular thing, but not Taylor Swift. Yes, she obviously has spent a lot of her time focusing on her music, but it didn’t affect her academic performance. She was able to maintain a 4.0 grade point average in high school. This is amazing, particularly since this was when her music career really began to take off. Most high schoolers will tell you that the work is a lot harder than it was a few decades ago, so this is just one more amazing thing about Taylor Swift that we didn’t know.

7. Her grandparents are an inspiration for her romanticism

Taylor’s music has something very special to offer the world. It is filled with the realities that go with being in relationships. When you really listen to the words and the stories that she tells with her music, thee are patterns that you can easily pick out. She tells real life stories through the words. Whether it’s about falling in love, breaking up, acting immature, or fighting with friends, she has covered the gamut and there is a lot of reality included. She writes things the way that they are, but there is always a hint of romanticism, or the way that she’d like things to be in the words. She is inspired by the story of her grandparents who spent 51 years together as husband and wife. The only thing that ended their long romance was their deaths which happened a week apart.

8. Taylor isn’t afraid of getting her hands dirty

Before Taylor Swift became a successful musician and songwriter, she worked on her parents’ Christmas tree farm. Among her jobs was going through the trees and debugging them. It’s hardly a glamorous job, but Taylor is a realist and she’s not afraid to roll up her sleeves and get dirty if that’s what the job requires. This is the young lady that took on a job as an intern at the CMA Music Fest when she was just fourteen years old. She’s a go-getter and she understands the value of putting your efforts into the job. She’s been this way all of her life and now that she’s achieved a measure of success in her career, she maintains the same values.

9. She plays multiple musical instruments

We’ve seen Taylor play piano so this isn’t really news, but most fans don’t know that she learned how to play a twelve string guitar before she had any experience with a six string. This shows us a lot about her tenacity and drive. She doesn’t follow the path of least resistance in anything that she does. Twelve string guitars are much harder to play than six strings. It’s more difficult to press the strings down and the frets are generally a little wider, so she tackles the hardest things first. This way, the next challenge is a little easier. Smart girl. In addition to piano and guitar, she has also learned how to play the banjo and the ukulele. How cool is that?

10. She doesn’t let obstacles stand in her way

Most of us were quite disturbed when Kanye West interrupted her at an awards ceremony. His actions were extremely rude and it seemed as though he was sending the message that Taylor’s accomplishments were not as valuable as the friend that he was attempting to promote. Most of us would see this as a definite slight and would probably have hurt feelings and a little lull in our confidence. Kanye was fairly popular and had achieved mega star status himself at the time. His public humiliation of Taylor did affect her though, but not in the way that was necessarily negative. She took the incident for what it was worth, and turned it into an inspiration, rather than a personal affront or a career busting setback. Did you know that Taylor took a photograph of him and had it framed and hung on the walls of her Nashville home? That’s right! Beneath the picture is the caption, “Life is full of little interruptions.” What could have been a devastating blow to her psyche is now used to remind her that sometimes people do terrible things to us, and we can’t always stop them, but we don’t need to let it ruin our day.

11. She was already a professional songwriter at the age of 12.

Here is another incredible feat that Taylor accomplished. Many fans are not aware of the fact that when she wrote her first song, “Lucky You,” she was only twelve years old. She was off to a good start with this song, which was later included on her first album. By the time Taylor was fourteen, she had earned the distinction of being the youngest songwriter that the Sony/ATV music publishing company had ever hired. She’s big on firsts and breaking records and this very special lady just keeps on amazing us all.

12. Taylor lets the world know how much she loves her mom

Even though Taylor Swift has achieved fame and fortune at an early age, she hasn’t forgotten where she came from. She loves her mother intensely and she’s not afraid to show it publicly. The song “The Best Day” that she wrote and recorded, was a Christmas present for her mother. While kids generally go out and try to find a special nicknack, or perhaps a new robe and slippers, Taylor was more into giving her a gift that had some deep and lasting meaning. She’s also shown the world the protective feelings that she has for her mom. The song is so special to her that it makes her cry every time Taylor sings it. After hearing her mom crying backstage, every time that she performed it, she took it off of the playlist. Taylor doesn’t want her mom to cry. We think that this is one of the sweetest things about Taylor Swift.

13. Taylor comes from famous stock

Most fans are not aware of the fact that Taylor Swift had a famous grandmother. The mother of Taylor’s mom is Marjorie Finlay. She is an entertainer and opera singer who achieved international status. Swift’s grandma even hosted a Puerto Rican television show. How awesome is that?

14. Taylor writes her own material for television

Of course Taylor was invited to appear on Saturday Night Live. What most fans don’t realize is that she wasn’t dependent on materials that were written by the staff writers. Heck no, the girl wrote her own monologue for the show. This is fairly impressive, but the execs had no issue with her doing so because let’s face it…Taylor could just as easily take her career in the direction of screenplay or script writing if she took the notion to do it. There isn’t much that she couldn’t excel at if she wanted to.

15. Taylor breezed through her high school years in half the time

Swift’s career was getting into full swing during her high school years. As we discussed earlier, she managed to maintain a 4.0 grade point average, and this is no small feat, but it isn’t the most impressive thing that she accomplished at the time. She actively pursued her music career, kept a perfect GPA and finished all of the homeschooling course work for both her junior and senior years in a mere twelve months time. She packed two years into one and didn’t miss a beat in her studies, performance or career goals. All we can really say is WOW!

16. She’s making wise investments

Taylor Swift is making a lot of money, but she’s putting her love of finances to good use. Swift is no dummy when it comes to making money. She purchased a home that is located nevt to the Kennedy compound. While many fans believed she did so to be closer to Connor Kennedy, who was her boyfriend at the time. This couldn’t be further from the truth. Taylor saw the opportunity to make a short term financial investment and reap the benefits a few months later. We believe that she gets her financial savvy from her father. He made a very small investment in Big Machine records when Taylor first decided to sign with them. He is now the owner of three percent of the label, which has gone on to develop into a very successful company. This was the record label that she moved to when RCA wanted to her to wait four years before releasing an album. At the age of 14, she walked away from them. We bet they’re kicking themselves for that one.

17. Taylor really cares about people

many fans don’t realize that Taylor Swift in an amazingly generous super star. She’s made donations that have gone up into the hundreds of thousands of dollars to assist with worthy causes. She’s jumped on the band wagon to help the anti-discrimination efforts of the LGBT community, she supports natural disaster relief, charities for children who are ill, and in addition, she supports children’s literacy programs as well as arts education programs. She’s doing her part to contribute to the betterment of the world in a lot of different areas.

18. She started out on a ramshackle note

It wasn’t all glamor and glitter when Taylor first started with her record label Big Machine. By the time her first single was released, the company only employed ten people and the company didn’t even have any furniture. Much of the work had to be done by Taylor and her mom when it was time to send a new song to the radio stations. The two women remember sitting on the floor to assist the label’s staff with stuffing the CD singles into the mailers that would be sent out.

19. She initially wanted to be on Broadway

Taylor’s first love wasn’t country music. In fact, prior to her move to Nashville, she had actually joined a sketch comedy group. She was a member of Theatre Kids Live! Swift made a noble attempt to make it on Broadway, but the music was calling her and she eventually gave in and followed the path that was opened before her.

20. Even fame and fortune can’t hold back her nightmares

Taylor Swift is a well-adjusted young superstar. She has common sense and great values, but there is a problem that has been plaguing her for some time. She keeps having recurrent dreams as the result of the stress that comes with the business. One of them is about her being arrested for a crime that she didn’t commit. It makes us wonder if this particular dream has anything to do with Kanye’s unfair treatment of her on national television?