“Fifteen” is one of those Taylor Swift songs that perfectly encapsulates her everyday, unapologetically tender and vitally universal songwriting. In one of the lines of the Without fear Swift assures her youth that there's more to life than “hanging out with guys on the football team,” but her big smile during a recent performance of the song suggests that maybe those teenage dreams are still sweet when they come true at age 34.
Fans online are clinging to a moment from the June 2 stop Tour d'Epoques in Lyon, during which Swift blushes and kicks her head back, interpreting it as the involuntary response of a woman singing about her love or a moment of realizing that this particular line has acquired a different meaning.
Looking at other lyrics on “Fifteen,” which mostly cover first loves (and heartbreak), it's certainly ironic to sing about letting go of childhood hopes when it turns out they've actually come true. (ICYMI, she's in a relationship with Travis Kelce, who has won multiple Super Bowls as a tight end for the Kansas City Chiefs.) Elsewhere in Swift's discography, you can also see this kind of daydreaming and restlessness, which it doesn't you know “she wears short skirts, I wear t-shirts / She's the cheerleader and I'm in the stands” from “You Belong With Me,” another Without fear clue?
But perhaps the most crucial line to revisit from “Fifteen” comes at the end: “But I've found that time can heal almost anything / And maybe you find who you're supposed to be.” The high school hierarchies that play a big role in Swift's early songs may always be part of her work, but now she may have reached a place where she can laugh at and appreciate an older version of herself. And while it's true that there's more to life than dating an athlete, and Swift has certainly “fulfilled some of my biggest dreams,” being in love with a football player can still be one of them.
