Taylor Swift: "I wanted this life since I was a kid"

Taylor Swift spoke frankly in today's (August 23) Guardian about betrayal and press intrusion, as those topics are covered by Swift's latest single 'Shake It Off':

"In the last couple of years I’ve had to come to terms with the fact that anyone can say anything about me and call TMZ or Radar Online or something, and it will be an international headline.

"You can either go crazy and let it make you bitter and make you not trust people, and become really secluded or rebellious against the whole system. Or you can just shake it off and figure that as long as you’re having more fun than anyone else, what does it matter what anyone else thinks? Because I’ve wanted this life since I was a kid.”

“I am not gonna let them make me miserable when I could be enjoying my life. That’s why you see these artists become a tabloid regular and then become artistically and musically irrelevant, because they let [gossipy websites] stifle them. It’s not going to happen here.”

Swift's new album, '1989', will be released on October 27. The single, 'Shake It Off', is out now.

Watch Swift's 'Shake It Off' video and a preview clip of the MTV VMA Awards starring Swift below: