She’s hit a high note on both top-10 charts and best-dressed lists for
months now, but what do we really know about Taylor Swift? With a little
Facebooking, a lot of MySpace-ing and the occasional Twitter alert, you
can find out more than just the basics about the blond country-music
star. For instance, she’s only 19 and her sophomore album, Fearless,
debuted at No. 1 on Billboard. She was born in Pennsylvania but now
resides in Nashville, and her million-plus MySpace friend count is
growing faster than ever. Also of note: she wowed critics at the Grammys
with an acoustic version of her hit song “Fifteen”—which featured a
duet with gal pal Miley Cyrus (whose film Hannah Montana: The Movie,
Swift makes a cameo in). Yet, what makes Swift much more interesting
than most of the teen stars out there has nothing to do with the trivial
bits of biographical information floating around the web. Sitting down
to talk to FLARE after our full-day photo shoot, Swift proves
why she is the next big thing.