Taylor Swift became a chart-topping singer and songwriter as a teen, and while her drive and focus likely pushed her megastardom, she said she originally began penning lyrics because she was lonely.
"I turned to songwriting because I didn't really have anybody else to talk to," Swift said during an interview on MTV's "The Seven" Wednesday (October 27). "I was going through a very lonely phase at school, which a lot of kids do. It's just when you're going through it you feel like you're the only one going through it."
Channeling the pain through the pen, Swift used her loner status to launch her into superstar territory. Along the way, she's learned that while her lyrics may be informed by new experiences, she plans to remain true to herself.
"I changed a lot over the course of my life, and having written songs since I was 12, your perspective changes," she said. "But I think part of growing up is realizing that you'll never change, but you'll never stay the same either."
One thing that doesn't stay the same is her schedule, which picked up the pace as the starlet dropped her latest album, Speak Now.
"A typical day for me, it's fun, because, lately, there really is no typical day. There are some things that are always gonna be the same, like my priority on family and making sure that I always remember to love this," she explained.
Although she has to maintain the packed and sometimes punishing schedule of a global pop star, Swift says she doesn't regret trading in dorm life for the limelight.
"I'm very conscious of the path that I chose in life and that it is a different path than what my friends chose. College and living in a dorm, that would have been my life if music hadn't been my life," she said, adding that she gets a taste of the campus experience through her close friends and family. "I always keep one eye on that path. I go and I visit my brother at college and I visit my best friend Abigail at college and go and I attend her journalism class. I have no regrets about the path that I took, but I still try to experience as much as I possibly can in life."
Swift maintained that her "biggest challenge is staying closer to hope rather than being closer to fear," but added that doing what she loves keeps her grounded.
"Loving this is a big part of my life and sometimes, if you get too tired or you're jetlagged, you might forget," she said. "But I always remind myself that I love this."
Don't miss "The Seven" every weekday at 5 p.m. ET on MTV.