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This piece originally ran after the Sundance premiere ofMiss Americanain Park City, Utah.
We are republishing it now that the documentary is streaming on Netflix.
As it turns out,Miss Americanais a relatively revealing and compelling portrait of Swift.
One way this played out was via an eating disorder that lasted several years.
Swift admits that for most of her career, she was a double zero and wasnt eating.
When she did eat, she tracked every single thing she put in her mouth and exercised obsessively.
Do you really care if the internet doesnt like you today if your mom is sick from chemo?
We dont do that anymore.
We do not do that anymore.
Its better to think you look fat than to look sick.
She reacted very calmly to the news thatReputationwasnt nominated for any of the big Grammy categories.
Swift takes the news in impressive stride, appearing briefly crestfallen but then decisive.
This is good, this is fine, she says.
I need to make a better record.
Im making a better record.
Her socks match her pajamas exactly in this scene.
This is just something I wanted to note.
sounds better in development than it does in its final form.
We get to see Swift in various stages of creating several times throughout the doc.
(At one point, she comes up with the concept for the Me!
video seemingly on the fly, describing it ecstatically and second-by-second to collaborator Brendon Urie.)
Is it time for an acoustic rerelease of Me!?
She drinks white wine with ice.
This is her drink of choice at several pivotal moments in the film.
I dont have a partner who I climbed this mountain with who I can high-five.
Shouldnt I have someone I can call?
This, along with her mothers illness, prompted a major reevaluation of her priorities.
The Kanye West incident and its resulting fallout messed her up more than she let on.
The publics reaction #TaylorSwiftIsOverPartywas the No.
And so did her sexual assault trial.
Andrea Swift is also shown sobbing into Taylors arms after the trial, relieved but also devastated for Taylor.
Taylor herself says she was unspeakably and unchangeably different after the trial.
The assault trial was the catalyst for Swifts political outspokenness.
Andrea scoffs at this, and so does Taylor.
These are your dads celebrities but not your dads republicans, she says, her eyes brimming with tears.
I need to be on the right side of history.
I dont fucking care, says Taylor.
She didnt try a burrito until she was 26 years old.
But we watch her joyfully eat one during a recording session.
She lets her cats eat at her dinner table.
This is another event at which she drinks iced white wine.
She puts her cats in a backpack with a window in it when she travels.
She puts … her cats … in a backpack … with a window in it … when she travels.
Swift replied, So its like a Tamagotchi?
She does professional-grade manicures on herself and her friends.
In one scene, she gives her friend Todrick Hall a manicure backstage at the AMAs.
Howd you learn to do this?
he asks, impressed.
I really like having cute nails and I really cant go out in public, she says.
Near the end of the doc, Swift intelligently sums up her growth as a person.
But this isnt a pat conclusion; all isnt solved.
