The Significance of Squad Goals: Why Taylor Swift's Crew Rules
In the past 14 months, Taylor Swift has notched her biggest album debut, scored three No. 1 singles, headlined an enormous world tour, became a key player in the music industry's streaming debate and cemented her status as a pop superstar with little competition. She has, seemingly, done it all. But her biggest cultural impact has come from the ones she's brought alongside her this time.
One of the inescapable catchphrases of 2015 was "squad goals," and the squad that was clearly the most goal-worthy was Swift's band of gal pals. This crew has neither a name (more on why that's important later) nor a set lineup (also important), but everyone knows that, if Taylor co-signs you, then you were in her club, and worth watching.
A quick survey of Taylor's besties include Selena Gomez, Karlie Kloss, Lorde, Serayah McNeill, Hailee Steinfeld, Zendaya, Lena Dunham, Cara Delevigne, Lily Aldridge, Jaime King, Gigi Hadid and Camila Cabello. That group includes Latinas, blacks, whites, singers, actresses and models. These women are of all different races, backgrounds, professions, ages, body types and levels of fame. It's the type of diversity all people should strive for in their personal lives, and, crucially, the collective front doesn't seem forced.
These women promote friendship over cattiness, togetherness over winner-takes-all, birthday parties over wasted club nights, and look to publicly uplift one another instead of squabbling like a Mean Girls gang.
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