by Carissa Johnson

Created on: February 03, 2010

"I love love. I love studying it and watching it. I love thinking about how we treat each other, and the crazy way that one person can feel one thing and another can feel totally different."

18-year-old country-pop sweetheart Taylor Alison Swift is making this apparent as she sweeps the nation with her relatable, heartfelt lyrics and sugar-sweet personality. Her most recent achievements include eight Grammy nominations and four awards, including Album of the Year, Best Country Song, Best Female Country Vocal Performance, and Best Country album.

Taylor was born on December 13, 1989 in Wymossing, Pennsylvania and she grew up on a Christmas tree farm. In fourth grade, she wrote a poem entitled "The Monster in my Closet" and won a national award. At age 5, she realized her passion for singing and has been ever since. When she was 13, Taylor signed a contract with RCA Records, but dropped it a year later because she wanted to write her own songs. Scott Borchetta, owner of indie label Big Machine records, said of Taylor, "She has a real inner vision, a real inner directedness." He later convinced her to sign with him. "I didn't come in to this to be baby-sat," Swift told the Associated Press about having creative control over her music. “I'm intimidated by the fear of being average.”

In 2006, Taylor released her first single, "Tim McGraw," which she reportedly began writing in her freshman math class. On October 24 of that year, her self-titled debut album released, generating instant popularity, eventually selling more than 2.5 million copies. All of the songs on this album were either written or cowritten by Taylor herself.

In December 2006, Taylor won her first Grammy for Best New Artist, and in November 2007, Taylor won the prestigious Horizon Award at the Country Music Association (CMA) Awards, which has  been won by Garth Brooks and Carrie Underwood in previous years. In her acceptance speech, she gushed, “I can’t even believe that this is real... This is definitely the highlight of my senior year!”

Later that year, Taylor celebrated her 18th birthday party with a pink theme and about 200 guests, including her friend Kellie Pickler.

2008 was another huge year for Taylor, as she appeared on the cover of the April issue of Blender magazine and won Video of the Year at the Country Music Television (CMT) Awards. She spent most of the night barefoot because Faith Hill told her that if her high heels were hurting her feet, she should

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