Okay. I know Taylor Swift  is a bit of a polarizing artist. People either love her or hate her. I love her unabashedly. I think she’s adorable, a talented songwriter (her songs are packed with contemporary YA story ideas!),  and she’s appears to be gracious, friendly, clean-cut and appreciative. My daughter (who’s almost four) loves Taylor too. In fact, she recently told me she doesn’t want her last name to be Upperman anymore; she wants it to be Swift. Awesome.

For the past month or so, we’ve been listening to Mean like it’s going out of style. We love the peppy beat and the stick-in-your-head lyrics (You, with your switching sides/And your wildfire lies and your humiliation/You have pointed out my flaws again/As if I don’t already see them…), and my daughter especially likes that the delightful little actress who plays Ramona in Ramona and Beezus is in the video.

Here’s the video, with full lyrics below:

You, with your words like knives
And swords and weapons that you use against me
You have knocked me off my feet again
Got me feeling like a nothing
You, with your voice like nails on a chalkboard
Calling me out when I’m wounded
You picking on the weaker man

Well you can take me down with just one single blow
but you don’t know, what you don’t know…

Someday I’ll be living in a big ol’ city
And all you’re ever going to be is mean
Someday I’ll be big enough so you can’t hit me
And all you’re ever going to be is mean
Why you gotta be so mean?

You, with your switching sides
And your wildfire lies and your humiliation
You have pointed out my flaws again
As if I don’t already see them
I walk with my head down
Trying to block you out ’cause I’ll never impress you
I just wanna feel okay again

I bet you got pushed around
Somebody made you cold
But the cycle ends right now
Cause you can’t lead me down that road
And you don’t know, what you don’t know…

Someday I’ll be living in a big ol’ city
And all you’re ever going to be is mean
Someday I’ll be big enough so you can’t hit me
And all you’re ever going to be is mean
Why you gotta be so mean?

And I can see you years from now in a bar
Talking over a football game
With that same big loud opinion
But nobody’s listening
Washed up and ranting about the same old bitter things
Drunk and grumbling on about how I can’t sing
But all you are is mean

All you are is mean
And a liar, and pathetic, and alone in life
And mean, and mean, and mean, and mean

But someday I’ll be living in a big ol’ city
And all you’re ever going to be is mean, yeah yeah
Someday I’ll be big enough so you can’t hit me
And all you’re ever going to be is mean
Why you gotta be so mean?

Someday I’ll be living in a big ol’ city
And all you’re ever going to be is mean, yeah yeah
Someday I’ll be big enough so you can’t hit me
And all you’re ever going to be is mean
Why you gotta be so mean?

Also, two quick things:
1) If you’d like to win a brand new copy of Jessi Kirby’s lovely debut Moonglass, you can enter my giveaway HERE.
2) My friend Caroline Richmond interviewed me for her “After the Call” series. If you’re interested in learning more about my path to signing with a literary agent, you can read the interview HERE.