Marie Claire Magazine Scans

Though Swift was born in Wyomissing, Pennsylvania, and lived there until she was 14, there is a specifically Southern flavor to much of her appeal. She loves flouncy miniskirts and candy-colored strapless dresses and halo-style headbands with silk flowers sewn on. She says “Y’all” and “Thay-nk ewe!” She prays. She bakes. (When she’s home in Nashville, she regularly delivers homemade pumpkin-spice cookies with cream cheese frosting to the construction guys working on her new condo.) But there’s a clear-eyed, laser-focus quality to Swift’s attention, too — you sense there’s a mighty brain ticking beneath all those blonde curls. “I love having a goal, feeling like I’m on a mission,” says Swift. “I love trying to beat what I’ve done so far.”

At the moment, that’s a tall order. Swift’s second album, Fearless, was the best-selling album of any genre in 2009. An addictive confection of country/pop love songs, Fearless stole the hearts of little girls and not-so-little girls all over America, sitting at number one on the Billboard Top 200 for 11 weeks, which is longer than any other album in the last decade. Come awards time, Swift took home four Grammys (including Best Album of the Year) and the MTV Moonman for Best Female Video (aka The Kanye Incident) — along with a truckload of other trophies, including the CMA award for Entertainer of the Year in 2009. Tickets for Swift’s recent concert at L.A.’s Staples Center sold out in two minutes. Last year, she earned $18 million from albums and touring alone.