Pop princess Taylor Swift has a reputation for being one of the most genuine and kind-hearted artists of our time – and she's certainly lived up to it.
She goes above and beyond for her fans, famously covering tuition fees for struggling university students, even buying one fan a house, and in her hometown of Nashville, she paid for three months of health insurance for the entire staff of local record store, Grimey's, which was struggling to stay afloat during the pandemic.
Her long-time friend, performer and choreographer Todrick Hall shared an example of Taylor's fan kindness, telling HELLO!: "In 2016 when I was in Kinky Boots on Broadway, Taylor came to see me and support me in the show.
"When the show was over and it was time for bows, security was trying to get Taylor out so she wouldn't be mobbed by fans, she was like: 'Give me a second please, I don't want to leave until I see my friend take his bow.'
"After my show Kinky Boots on Broadway, Taylor stayed for two and a half hours and took separate pictures with every single drag queen, every cast member, every crew member, every orchestra member and even the children and brothers and sisters of the cast" - Todrick Hall, Taylor's long-time friend, performer and choreographer
"After the show, the cast members wanted to meet her and take a picture. Taylor stayed for two and a half hours and took separate pictures with every single drag queen, every cast member, every crew member, every orchestra member and even the children and brothers and sisters of the cast.
"After two and a half hours of photos and doing personalised autographs, the doorman (who had been at that theatre for over 25 years) said he had seen pretty much every celebrity walk through those doors - even the Presidents and First Ladies of the United States - and he had never seen somebody spend so much time with the cast or seen anything like that happen before. He said she was a class act. And I was like: 'Werk, that's my friend!'"
Taylor's list of charitable donations is endless, particularly when it comes to helping her Swifties, but she's also given millions of her fortune away to other causes. She opened the Taylor Swift Education Center in the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, donating $4m to the museum so that children can explore the culture of country music through workshops, installations and interactive classrooms.
She is also an active supporter of the Make-A-Wish Foundation, visiting sick children at the St Jude Children's Research Hospital, the Walter Reed Army Medical Centre, the Ronald McDonald House and the Cedars-Sinai Medical Centre. She has also donated over $200,00 to the V Foundation for Paediatric Cancer Research.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Taylor donated to the World Health Organization and Feeding America, offering one of her signed guitars as part of an auction to raise money for the National Health Service. In June 2020, following the murder of George Floyd, she donated to the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund.
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