Taylor Swift has a positive influence on her fans’ body image, reveals study

Being a Swiftie or a fan of singer Taylor Swift can be good for you! A new study has revealed that Taylor Swift has a positive impact on her fans’ body image.

When “Love Story” became a chart-topper in 2008, a young Taylor Swift garnered many fans. One of them was 16-year-old Ningthibi Wahengbam, who enjoyed the singer’s fusion of country music with pop music. It wasn’t just the melody or genre picked by Swift that impressed Wahengbam. The teen was also inspired by the lyrics of her songs. One of them was Swift’s “Tied Together With a Smile” that featured on the artiste’s eponymous debut album. The lyrics of the song begin with, “Seems the only one who doesn’t see your beauty is the face in the mirror looking back at you. You walk around here thinking you are not pretty, but that is not true because I know you.” At the time, Wahengbam was struggling with her body image. “This song showed that I was not the only one having issues with body image. This song helped me to be more positive about myself,” says Wahengbam, now 32.

Taylor Swift has been influencing her fans, also lovingly called Swifties, in a big way. There is now also a study that proves the superstar has helped her admirers achieve a more positive outlook towards body image and disordered eating.

Study on Taylor Swift’s impact on fans’ body image
Taylor Swift is a role model for her fans, and her content positively impacted their disordered relationships to food and body, according to a July 2024 study published in the Social Science & Medicine journal. Researchers from University of Vermont analysed the top 200 TikTok and Reddit social media posts that contained over 8,000 comments related to the superstar, eating disorders and body image.

Swifties talked about the “Fearless” hitmaker being a positive role model for them and that her songs like “Tied Together With a Smile” and “You’re On Your Own Kid”, as well as her documentary “Miss Americana helped” them heal from abnormal eating behaviours and negative body image.

But researchers also found that some of her fans were upset when Swift used the word “fat” in her video for her song “Anti-Hero” in 2022.