The pop star may not be the gimmicky, calculated persona that so many had thought her to be over the years.

Here are five surprising takeaways from the documentary and what they reveal about our newly beloved TayTay.

1. She thought it was she, not Kanye West, who got booed onstage at the 2009 VMAs

Miss Americana lives up to Swift’s bare-it-all policy by rehashing the controversial feud between her and Kanye West, which started at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards (VMAs).

Not to pick at an old wound, but we all remember how West stole the limelight from Swift’s victory in the best female video category. Swift, then 17 years old, was delivering her victor’s speech when the rapper interrupted her onstage to exclaim that “Beyoncé has one of the best videos of all time!”

Unsurprisingly, the audience gradually booed West off the stage while giving Swift the standing ovation. But apparently, that wasn’t how she initially remembered it.

Recalling the traumatic moment in her documentary, Swift said, “It was so echoey in there. At the time I didn’t know they were booing him doing that. I thought that they were booing me.”

But she has since learned a lot from the incident. “For someone who’s built their whole belief system on getting people to clap for you, the whole crowd booing is a pretty formative experience.”

2. Like many of us, she also battles body image issues

Swift has actually been battling an eating disorder, for the whole time that the world assumed she’s naturally skinny – and then hated her for it. Like so many young women her age, she is also prone to internalising unrealistic body ideals.

In a car ride scene, the singer said it’s not healthy for her to see pictures of herself. “I tend to get triggered by something, whether it’s a picture of me where I feel like my tummy looked too big … or someone said that I look pregnant or something, and that will trigger me to starve a bit – just stop eating.”

Admitting her body image issues to the public was initially difficult. In a recent interview with Variety magazine, Swift elaborated, “I didn’t know if I was going to feel comfortable with talking about body image and talking about the stuff I’ve gone through in terms of how unhealthy that’s been for me – my relationship with food and all that over the years.”

Kudos to her for opening up!

3. She is in a steady relationship now

But as private as her relationship with Alwyn is, she clearly cannot resist making a muse out of him; apparently her latest album, Lover, is dedicated to him. And although he wasn’t explicitly mentioned in Miss Americana, Alwyn did appear halfway through the documentary, albeit briefly, in personal video montages and after her concert.

Naturally, we are betting on more Swift-Alwyn appearances soon.

Her life changed when her mother was diagnosed with cancer

In the documentary, Swift noted that her priorities in life definitely changed after her mother and manager, Andrea Swift, was diagnosed with cancer in early 2015. To get through it, Andrea adopted a Dalmatian, which she jokingly referred to on-screen as her “cancer dog”.

A scene showing Swift’s reunion with her family was accompanied by her heartfelt narration: “Do you really care if the internet doesn’t like you today when your mum’s sick from her chemo? You’ve got to be able to really prioritise what matters to you. For me, it’s my family and my friends.”

She is an ally of the women's rights movement

A chunk of Miss Americana was dedicated to showing her transformation from a girl who kept out of politics to a brave woman who wants to “be on the right side of history”.

For one, there was Swift’s legal battle against ex-radio host David Mueller, who had groped her during a backstage meet-and-greet in 2013 (she won the sexual assault case in 2017). Then, there’s also her public outcry against Tennessee Republican senator Marsha Blackburn, who is known for labelling her anti-gay policies as “Christian values”.

While Blackburn did eventually win the seat, Swift still emerged victorious: because of her, the number of young voters in Tennessee had surged for the 2018 US election. This only proves her power as a public figure in her own right. And we believe there’s plenty more of her voice for us to discover.

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