2024 was a major year for Taylor Swift, between making history at the Grammys as the first and only artist to win album of the year four times, dropping her 11th studio album, The Tortured Poets Department, and ending the biggest tour of all time. 

It was also a big year for fans — and we want to highlight nine Swifties who uplifted the fandom at large this year. 

Some are notable to Swifties as those who have built communities, both online and in person. Others are professional writers who documented a legacy-making year in Swift’s life. 

And still others, such as the Gen Z pop women who blew up this year — see: Sabrina Carpenter, Gracie Abrams, Chappel Roan, Olivia Rodrigo and Billie Eilish — are notable in how their success reflects the way that Swift has completely transformed the industry. When Swift first started in country, it was essentially unheard of for a young woman to write and perform songs about her own life. 

“Now in 2024 that’s just what pop music is,” Rob Sheffield, Rolling Stone writer and author of “Heartbreak is the National Anthem: How Taylor Swift Reinvented Pop Music,” previously told Taypedia. “If you look at the stars who are on top of the charts now… it’s all these artists who have taken their inspiration from the kind of singer songwriter that Taylor invited them to be. We now live in an entire world of Taylor Swifts. And these artists are all very different from each other, and they’re all very different from Taylor, but they’re all taking one piece of what she invented and running with it in their own direction.” 

Each of these honorees did just that: took a piece of the vast world of music and fandom that Swift has created, and ran with it in a way that changed the world of Swifties for the better. 

1. Kyle Mumma, founder of Swift Alert

Mission: Created an app that allowed Swifties to keep up with the Eras Tour via livestream links, scheduling, and their blockbuster Eras game Mastermind.

Favorite TS album: “1989. My fandom really crystalized during that era. You’d be hard-pressed to find a better run of songs than ‘Wonderland’, ‘You Are In Love’, and ‘New Romantics’.”

Taylor Swift fandom journey: Mumma started listening to Taylor Swift because his high school girlfriend loved Debut. He told Taypedia he kept his fandom under wraps at first, but slowly became more comfortable (and outspoken) about it as he got older. Now, he says he’s been to every single tour. “…and I married another Swiftie, which makes it easier!”, he laughs.

2025 goals: “We really want to see if we can keep this community we’ve built going,” Mumma says. He mentions some potential new directions for Swift Space now that the Eras Tour is over, saying he’s working on a games subscription that would allow users to play new games, share, and engage with other users.

2. Ben Porter, founder of SwiftSpace 

Mission: Created an app that allows Swifties to connect, find Swift-themed businesses, nearby Swiftie gatherings and read all the latest Taypedia stories.

Favorite TS song: “Lately, I’ve been loving ‘Paper Rings.’ I usually gravitate toward the pop-focused eras, but ‘All Too Well (10-Minute Version)’ often finds its way into my most-played songs.”

Taylor Swift fandom journey: Porter grew up 15 minutes from Swift’s hometown of Wyomissing, Pennsylvania, which gave him an early advantage to discovering her musical career. He continued to listen to her music and eventually came up with the idea for SwiftSpace during the Midnights era. 

“Since the re-release of SwiftSpace this year, I’ve been completely absorbed in the fandom, especially as the app continues to grow,” Porter tells Taypedia. “I’ve also become more connected to the fandom now that my niece is a Swiftie, and I’ve made some close friends through SwiftSpace, which has made the experience even more special.” 

2025 goals: Porter put SwiftSpace on hiatus in 2023 and didn’t always know he was going to bring it back this year. But “after taking some much-needed time to reflect, I realized the app had so much potential to help people connect,” he says. “Releasing SwiftSpace 2.0 has been an incredible journey, and now the stars are the limit for next year. I’m also excited to (hopefully) announce something we’ve been working on for a few years, separate from the Android version of the app.” 

3. Emerald Medrano and Irene Kim, Founders of Swifties 4 Kamala

Mission: Built a political organization that aimed to harness the power of the Swiftie community to elect Vice President Kamala Harris as President in November 2024.

Taylor Swift fandom journey: “This movement started in a moment of anxiety: A moment when I felt like I needed to become the cheer captain and not just on the bleachers,” Medrano said during a virtual rally featuring Carole King and Sen. Elizabeth Warren in August. “It was a time when all my fears about our country and our democracy just built up and I knew I had to speak now.” 

2025 goals: While the election didn’t go the way the group had hoped, the organization has teased future initiatives to come: “Don’t worry, the story of #SwiftiesForKamala won’t be ending soon,” they posted on social media later in November. 

4. Sabrina Carpenter, singer

Mission: After opening for the Eras Tour’s Latin America, Australia and Singapore shows, Carpenter had an explosive year, with her first platinum album, first number one song on the Billboard Hot 100, first Coachella performance, first arena tour and first Grammy Award nominations, to name a few. 

Taylor Swift fandom journey: She’s been in the spotlight for more than a decade beginning as a child actress, but her love for Taylor Swift dates back even further — to when she was a 10-year-old singing “Picture to Burn.” 

Favorite TS song: “It depends on the mood,” Carpenter told Variety last year. “Am I sad? Am I grieving? Am I celebrating?” She added that she loved hearing “Style” live during the Eras Tour, but folklore reigns as her favorite album. 

2025 goals: In February, Carpenter is up for six awards at the Grammys including song of the year, record of the year, album of the year and best new artist. The Short n’ Sweet tour also picks back up again in March in Dublin, Ireland. 

5. Sarah Chapelle, @TaylorSwiftStyled

Mission: Covering Taylor Swift’s fashion, online and in her new book, “Taylor Swift Style: Fashion Through The Eras”

Favorite TS song: “Tim McGraw” 

Taylor Swift fandom journey: “I’ve been a fan of Taylor’s since 2006,” Chapelle tells Taypedia. “I was perusing the country music section of Limewire, a product of its time, and found a song that piqued my interest just by its title. It was called ‘Our Song.’ I downloaded it. Then I downloaded the rest of Taylor’s first album. The rest is history.” 

2025 goals: “In 2025, I look forward to growing Taylor Swift Style’s community on Substack,” she says. “In my weekly newsletter there, I expand on my Taylor fashion commentary as well as offer insight into my personal style and product recommendations.” 

6. Vienna Swifties

Mission: Swift was supposed to perform three sold-out shows in Vienna, Austria, in August, but local authorities announced just days before that they had arrested two men who appeared to be planning a terrorist attack on one of the shows, prompting event organizers to cancel all three of them. But Swifties who had already traveled for the show didn’t let that stop them from gathering, singing Swift’s songs and showing the world that being a Swiftie is, above all, about connection and community. 

“Her songs are really built for community,” Annie Zaleski, a music journalist and author of “Taylor Swift: The Stories Behind the Songs,” previously told Taypedia. “There’s something really special and sacred about going (to the Eras Tour) and meeting strangers. There’s a lot of kindness there. … I saw a bunch of those videos and it really touched me that people were like, ‘I don’t want to be alone. I want to be with other Swifties.’” 

7. Flavor Flav, hip-hop hype man

Mission: There are droves of famous Taylor Swift fans, but no one as unabashedly enthusiastic as Public Enemy hype man Flavor Flav. 

Favorite TS song: “Bad Blood” 

Taylor Swift fandom journey: What started as an ask to Swift’s team for tickets to take his girlfriend’s kids to the Eras Tour turned into Flavor Flav dubbing himself “King Swiftie” after experiencing the community of Swift fans and diving deeper into her songwriting catalogue. 

“When we walked over to the tent where I was supposed to be at, a lot of these fans were coming up to me — these young kids, man, I’m surprised they even knew who I was! — and they start giving me these friendship bracelets,” he said in a January interview with Hot 97’s Ebro in the Morning radio show. “Next thing you know, I have friendship bracelets all up and down my arm. We were trading bracelets and everything! Her fanbase embraced me, and I embraced them back.”

8. Gracie Abrams, singer

Mission: Halfway through opening for Swift on the Eras Tour, Abrams put out her new album, “The Secret of Us,” which debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 list.

Favorite TS song: “Would’ve, Could’ve, Should’ve”

Taylor Swift fandom journey: Making the leap from Swiftie to close, personal friend of Taylor Swift is no small feat. “When I met her, it kind of felt like we had known each other already, which I’m sure there was an element of just like the parasocial relationship thing,” Abrams previously told The Sunday Times. “I’ve grown up with her voice in my headphones my entire life.” 

2025 goals: Abrams will be touring internationally for the first half of 2025, and through the U.S. for the second half. She’s also up for one Grammy award along with Swift: best pop duo/group performance for “us.” 

9. Bryan West, Taylor Swift beat reporter 

Mission: Covering all things Taylor Swift for USA TODAY and The Nashville Tennessean, and authored “This Swift Beat” book about Swifties and the Eras Tour

Favorite TS song: “All Too Well (10 Minute Version) (Taylor’s Version)”

Taylor Swift fandom journey: “I’ve always been a country music fan, so I am an OG listener,” West tells Taypedia. “The first time I heard ‘Tim McGraw’ was when the track was released the summer after I graduated high school. The Taylor Swift reporter position has given me a better understanding of Swift’s discography, work, business savvy and global impact. The biggest difference is I used to talk about her music, work and Easter eggs as a hobby, and now I do it as a job.”  

2025 goals: “Everyone always asks — and this is so interesting to me — ‘Do you have a job on December 9?’ And I’m like, ‘yes, it’s an indefinite job.’ Taylor doesn’t go away,” West previously told Taypedia. “Even when you think it’s quiet, a quiet Taylor’s creating. A quiet Taylor’s planning. If Tortured Poets was three years in the making, she already has the next three years planned out. So I just know I’m going to be covering her as much as I can.”