She Doesn't Want to Raise Kids Around Paparazzi

There are a lot of really, really good things about being Taylor Swift. The money, the cats, the wardrobe, the explosive career. I envy all four of her beautifully decorated homes in Nashville, LA, New York, and Rhode Island. I would love to have Emma Stone and Lena Dunham on speed dial, their advice at my fingertips anytime I needed it. But the way she talks about her experiences with paparazzi? I wouldn't want to trade her anything for that, especially because she handles them much more gracefully than I ever could.

Swift's latest, highly-anticipated album, 1989 , is set to drop in a couple of weeks (seriously, is it Oct. 27 yet?), and just about every day, a new interview is released filled with details of Swift's life that I've been scarfing down like the last pumpkin scone at Starbucks. There's something all these interviews have in common, though — there's something so heartbreaking about the way she's had to change her life because the paparazzi just won't leave her alone.

Don't get me wrong — Swift is still be super open and welcoming to her fans, but when it comes to her personal life? She's setting herself up for a different life than the one she might've expected to lead, all because of the people who follow her with cameras. How unfair is that?

She may have changed her mind about having kids

In her November 2014 cover interview with InStyle , Swift said:

I don't know if I'll have kids. It's impossible not to picture certain scenarios and how you would try to convince them that they have a normal life when, inevitably, there will be strange men pointing giant cameras at them from the time they are babies.

This is a pretty valid point, and there's definitely nothing wrong with deciding not to have kids. But in 2012, Swift was singing a totally opposite tune. She told Cosmopolitan that, in the future, she saw herself "being a mom full-time, doing everything for my kids, having a bunch of them." If the paparazzi are to blame for Taylor changing her mind, that's incredibly unfair. She should be able to live whatever life she wants, with 19 kids Duggar-style if that's what will make her happy.

She's super paranoid about her music

1989 has yet to leak, which is pretty impressive when you consider that she's hosted four listening parties for her fans so far. This could be in part to Swift's recently founded paranoia in keeping her music from prying ears, which borderlines on obsessive. These days, she's freaking out about wiretaps and janitors who could be bugging areas where her music's being played. It's not unfounded by any stretch — there are sketchy people out there who will go to lengths you hoped people would never go to. If we've learned nothing else from the recent celebrity nude leaks, we've learned that.

But I hate that we live in a world where there are people as sweet as Swift who assume that "a janitor being paid by TMZ" is recording her every move. I hate it. I couldn't imagine ever having to live that way.

She's changed her philosophy on dating

I may rip my hair out if I have to hear one more Taylor Swift boyfriend joke, and it sounds like Swift's feeling the same way. Yeah, she's enjoying her current singledom as a time to hang out with her friends and discover who she really is, but in her Rolling Stone cover interview, she said she's thrown in the dating towel because she's just tired of fueling those jokes.

I feel like watching my dating life has become a bit of a national pastime, and I’m just not comfortable providing that kind of entertainment anymore. I don’t like seeing slide shows of guys I’ve apparently dated. I don’t like giving comedians the opportunity to make jokes about me at awards shows. I don’t like it when headlines read "Careful, Bro, She’ll Write a Song About You," because it trivializes my work. And most of all, I don’t like how all these factors add up to build the pressure so high in a new relationship that it gets snuffed out before it even has a chance to start. And so I just don’t date.

But at the end of the day, Swift is still keeping a positive attitude. The paparazzi sucks, but she hasn't lost sight that this is the life she asked for — even if it did come with some pretty unfortunate side effects. In the meantime, can we give this girl a break?

Images: TotallyTaylor-Gifs/Tumblr, Giphy (2)