Taylor Swift

Taylor Alison Swift is a singer-songwriter born on December 13, 1989, in West Reading, Pennsylvania. Her father, Scott Swift, is a stockbroker; her mother, Andrea Swift, is a homemaker who previously worked as a fund marketing executive; and her brother, Austin, is an actor. Swift spent her early years on a Christmas tree farm with her parents At age 9, Swift started taking vocal and acting lessons in New York City and later decided to shift her focus toward country music, inspired by Shania Twain and Faith Hill When the rising star was around 12 years old, a computer repairman named Ronnie Cremer taught her to play guitar and helped with her first efforts as a songwriter, leading Taylor to write "Lucky You", her first song ever In 2003, with the help of a family friend manager, she modeled for Abercrombie & Fitch and had an original song included on the show's compilation CD. With it, came the opportunity to attend meetings with major record labels To help Taylor's break into country music, her father transferred his job to an office in Nashville when she was 14, and the family relocated to a lakefront house in Hendersonville, Tennessee, where Taylor attended high school. Two years later, she transferred to Aaron Academy to better accommodate her touring schedule through homeschooling. She graduated high school a year early because of that In Nashville, Taylor started working with songwriter Liz Rose during two-hour writing sessions every Tuesday afternoon after school. Later, she became the youngest artist signed by Sony/ATV publishing house, but left the group at age 14. She believed she was running out of time because she wanted to capture the early years of her life on an album while it still represented what she was going through At a showcase in Nashville's Bluebird Cafe in 2005, Swift caught the attention of Scott Borchetta, a record executive who was preparing to form an independent record label, Big Machine Records. She became one of Big Machine's firs