She has been compared to Britney with her beauty, youth and hit charts and one could even compare the fact that both aren’t the GREATEST singers ever, but has this certain appeal to them (i.e. Britney-her dancing, Taylor-her sweetness, songwriting).

By this, I think Taylor’s not saying, “I’m gonna act like a senior, even though it’s hard, and not cuss in my songs, and be someone else” but instead saying, “You know…I have a lot of younger fans who I don’t want to offend. I don’t want their parents to not trust me. I don’t want to be known for flashing panties and starting off innocent that singing about sex over rap sounds.”

However, it’s also a great honor. To know that someone thinks enough of you or your situation to want to emulate you…there can be no higher compliment. And it has benefits for the role model, too. Knowing that things you’ve done and said are being modeled and that those teens might just pass your message on to their kids someday, means your message lives on, and therefore so do you. That folks, is the closest we’ll ever get to true immortality.

Taylor is doing really good things, and avoiding bad decisions. She gives a voice to teenagers’ lives. She’s modeling the right way to be. She’s not appearing on magazine covers in a towel or making offensive gestures about other cultures.

Kudos to you, Taylor. Keep up the good work.

It’s sorta like someone who habitually tells the truth doesn’t have to worry about keeping their story strait, but for a liar, consistency is a constant concern.

As for Taylor and her music…I think she is a gifted songwriter, but limited by her youth. And I think her songs are honest and based on her teenage experience, whether autobiographical or based on the lives of her peers, there is authenticity about them. Not my cup of tea stlye-wise, but I do hear the ring of truth in them, and in no way do I think she is a “fake”.

I don’t expect anyone to be a role model in the sense of expecting them to be perfect, but I find that if I respect the artist as a person, I generally enjoy their music more, and feel better about enriching them with my my hard earned dollars.

One of the reasons I am a Country fan, aside from the music, is because I genuinely like most Country performers…I find them to be real, decent, down to earth and humble people, even if they are not perfect. They seem like good-hearted and well intentioned people on the whole.

First of all, this makes her sound insecure, a people-pleaser. Secondly, that is not a good position for her to be in, to always walk on eggshells wondering if what she said will offend her fans, always second-guessing herself. I think she will hit her rebellious days (all successful teen singing stars do to a degree, even LeAnn Rimes during her “Twisted Angel” days) and the media will bring this quote back to bite her.

“In defending her stance on not getting caught up in the shenanigans of young Hollywood, she goes so far as to say: “When you lose someone’s trust, it’s lost, and there are a lot of people out there who are counting on me right now.” That’s a lot to carry on her slender shoulders: the expectations of all of her young fans. But I have to wonder, is it necessary?”

I think Taylor is trying too hard to be a good girl. That’s the way all the teen singing stars were like in the beginning before they turned into a woman and suddenly decided to explore their womanhood. In pop music, think Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, Jessica Simpson. They all started as good girls and look what they’ve become. In country music, the only teen star I can think of who’ve continued to be in the spotlight is LeAnn Rimes (Lila McCann, Jessica Andrews, and whoever else all fell off the planet) and like I said in a previous paragraph, even LeAnn went through a minor rebellious phase.

One day, Taylor will realize she is tired of doing what’s expected of her, just like all those other past teen stars I mentioned, country music or not. And she will do things that will offend her fans. No young star stays perfect.

Hey, If I fail, If I succeed. At least I lived as I believed.

Wait, that’s not what I really believe. That’s what Whitney Houston believed. Didn’t work out too well for her, either.

Role models are good. Very good.

I’m at that age where I still need them, even though I am one. Thank God for my Belmont philosophy professors!