Paparazzi captured the arrivals and departures of Taylor Swift’s 34th birthday celebration, but now Swift is sharing the view from the inside. The singer posted a carousel of photos from her party where she was served a “Birthday Girl of the Year” Milk Bar confetti cake by Zoë Kravitz. Other attendees pictured included Blake Lively, Gigi Hadid, Jack Antonoff, Sabrina Carpenter, Alana and Este Haim, Abigail Anderson Berard,
and more. (Swift’s boyfriend Travis Kelce could not attend due to having football practice for the Kansas City Chiefs in Missouri.)
“Can’t believe this year… actually… happened?” Swift wrote. “Thank you for all your beautiful birthday wishes yesterday. ”
Swift spoke to Time magazine in an interview last week about how she sees this time in her life. “I’ve been raised up and down the flagpole of public opinion so many times in the last 20 years,” Swift started. “I’ve been given a tiara, then had it taken away. It feels like the breakthrough moment of my career, happening at 33. And for the first time in my life, I was mentally tough enough to take what comes with that.”
“This is the proudest and happiest I’ve ever felt, and the most creatively fulfilled and free I’ve ever been,” she added. “Ultimately, we can convolute it all we want, or try to overcomplicate it, but there’s only one question: Are you not entertained?”
She also touched on her decision to live her life more publicly, after trying to stay out of the spotlight for years. “Over the years, I’ve learned I don’t have the time or bandwidth to get pressed about things that don’t matter,” Swift said. “Yes, if I go out to dinner, there’s going to be a whole chaotic situation outside the restaurant. But I still want to go to dinner with my friends. Life is short. Have adventures. Me locking myself away in my house for a lot of years—I’ll never get that time back. I’m more trusting now than I was six years ago.”
Senior News and Strategy Editor
Alyssa Bailey is the senior news and strategy editor at ELLE.com, where she oversees coverage of celebrities and royals (particularly Meghan Markle and Kate Middleton). She previously held positions at InStyle and Cosmopolitan. When she’s not working, she loves running around Central Park, making people take #ootd pics of her, and exploring New York City.
