Taylor Swift on AllMovie

Country music star Taylor Swift showed all the signs of her future career as a singer/songwriter when she was still a small girl growing up in Pennsylvania. Creative from the beginning, Swift was singing for local audiences by the time she was ten, and won a national poetry contest in the fourth grade for her poem "Monster in My Closet." By 12, the young artist was singing, writing songs, playing the 12-string guitar, and shopping demos around Nashville, hoping to score a record contract.

Within a few years, Swift's family relocated to the Nashville area so that the aspiring performer could pursue her career full-time. She was eventually offered a development deal with RCA, but rejected it when it didn't allow for her to record her own songs. Swift would be rewarded for her stalwartness, however, when she was signed by Big Machine Records a short time later. She was also hired in as the youngest staff songwriter ever to work for Sony/ATV Tree publishing.

Swift released a self-titled album in 2006, and it became an immediate hit, soon setting chart records that put her in league with established acts like the Dixie Chicks and Carrie Underwood. The 17-year-old became a household name, appearing on magazine covers, taking home awards, and joining the ranks of other young recording artists like Miley Cyrus and the Jonas Brothers. Swift eventually dated Jonas Brothers singer Joe Jonas, and appeared in the brothers' concert film Jonas Brothers: The 3-D Concert Experience following the release of her equally chart-topping sophomore album, Fearless, in 2008.