Taylor Swift’s ‘Snake’ Reference In Her New ‘Elle’ Cover Story Is A Mic Drop

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Taylor Swift seems to be gearing up for a new phase of her career. The recently social-media-shy star has begun using platforms like Instagram mostly when she has new music to promote, and she’s returned to posting in recent days and weeks. Moreover, she’s also been making the magazine cover rounds, which is all but a guarantee to Swifties that she’s going to drop an album soon.

Today, she appeared on the cover of Elle, addressing her upcoming 30th birthday (Okay, it’s not till December), and sharing 30 life lessons in advance of it. And while she shared some of her fears about going on a massive arena tour after the violent attacks that occurred at concerts in 2017, addressing the comparison to a snake that Kim Kardashian made in 2016 regarding her ongoing up and down relationship with Kim’s husband, Kanye.

“Be like a snake—only bite if someone steps on you,” Taylor wrote in her very second piece of advice, owning the label and making the comparison work for her, and hopefully putting it to bed once and for all. Of course, Taylor rather infamously reclaimed the symbol throughout her Reputation world tour, so she also talked about how that process helped her deal with the fall out of online bullying she faced after Kim’s comparison went viral:

“A few years ago, someone started an online hate campaign by calling me a snake on the internet. The fact that so many people jumped on board with it led me to feeling lower than I’ve ever felt in my life, but I can’t tell you how hard I had to keep from laughing every time my 63-foot inflatable cobra named Karyn appeared onstage in front of 60,000 screaming fans. It’s the Stadium Tour equivalent of responding to a troll’s hateful Instagram comment with “lol.” It would be nice if we could get an apology from people who bully us, but maybe all I’ll ever get is the satisfaction of knowing I could survive it, and thrive in spite of it.”

Keep thriving Taylor, and we’ll keep waiting for more new music.