At age 11, after many attempts, Taylor won a local talent competition by singing a rendition of Le Ann Rimes' "Big Deal", and was given the opportunity to appear as the opening act for Charlie Daniels at a Strausstown amphitheater.
This interest in country music isolated Swift from her middle school peers.
She moved to Nashville at age 14, having secured an artist development deal with RCA Records.
The lead single from the album, "Love Story", was released in September 2008 and became the second best-selling country single of all time, peaking at #4 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.
Four more singles were released throughout 20: "White Horse", "You Belong with Me", "Fifteen" and "Fearless".
Generally speaking, Swift has been pretty good at keeping her personal life out of the tabloids.
She rarely steps out with the man in her life and, when she does, the cameras usually aren’t around to capture it.
At an industry showcase at Nashville's The Bluebird Café in 2005, Swift caught the attention of Scott Borchetta, a Dreamworks Records executive who was preparing to form his own independent record label, Big Machine Records. Taylor released her debut album, "Taylor Swift", in October of 2006 and received generally positive reviews from music critics.
The New York Times described it as "a small masterpiece of pop-minded country, both wide-eyed and cynical, held together by Ms. Her single "Our Song" made her the youngest solo writer and singer of a #1 country song.
Taylor Swift and her boyfriend, Joe Alwyn, seem to be going strong.
The couple has been dating for more than two years now, but they have chosen to keep their relationship out of the public eye.
As of this writing, she is also the top-selling digital artist in music history.