Despite what cynics may say, Taylor Swift’s relationship with fans seems sincere

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This article was published 22/10/2015 (3825 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

You’d be hard-pressed to find a bigger Taylor Swift fan than Ria Drapete.

The 16-year-old Winnipegger has been a diehard Swiftie since she was nine. She’s a prolific social-media user, with her various accounts dedicated to all things Taylor. She has more than 25,000 followers on Twitter — I have 2,401 — and her Tumblr blog, swiftislife.tumblr.com, is followed by fellow Swifties from all over the globe. Ria owns all Swift’s albums — obviously — and has seen her in concert five times, three times on Swift’s current 1989 tour alone (Philadelphia, Minneapolis and Fargo, N.D.). She has a very supportive mom.

Ria’s dedication hasn’t gone unnoticed — it got her handpicked for a Taylor Swift meet-and-greet in Fargo.

Here’s how it went down: Ria got a message on Twitter from Taylor Nation, the pop star’s management, asking for her phone number and full name. She got “the Call” from a person officially known as “Kevin From Taylor Nation” while browsing in the Hot Topic in the West Acres Mall in Fargo, four hours before the show.

Kevin told Ria they’d been watching her social-media activity and had taken notice of the hashtag #RiaMeetTaylorinFargo. “He said, ‘We have one question for you: have you ever met Taylor Swift?’ ” she recalls. “And I just started bawling.”

We’re sitting in her family’s living room, and she’s breathless with excitement in the retelling. She shows me her wristband and the photo they took together. But it wasn’t just Swift’s management who had taken notice of the Winnipegger; the pop star herself has commented on Ria’s Instagram and has interacted with her on other social-media platforms.

When Ria arrived at the venue, Swift’s road manager, Erica, told Ria Swift herself had requested she be at the front of the line. (Ria insisted a fan with cancer cut in front.) And when the two met, it was like they were old friends. Ria was nervous — “I kept saying, ‘I can’t do this, I’m going to throw up’ ” — but apparently the biggest pop star on the planet is as you’d expect: very tall, very thin and smells fantastic. Oh, and she’s very, very nice.

“Taylor actually skipped her way over to me and says ‘Ria!’ I kept thinking, ‘She knows my name and wanted me to be at the front. How is this happening right now?’ ” Ria was a bit knocked out by Swift, but managed to stammer out that the pair share a birthday — Swift’s is Dec. 13, 1989, Ria’s is Dec. 13, 1998. But it was information Swift already knew.

“Taylor interrupts me and goes, ‘Oh yeah, you’re born on Dec. 13, 1998.’ I was like, ‘How do you know this?’ She’s like, ‘Ria, I stalk your blog — you don’t understand how creepy I am.’ ”

They posed for a photo. “She was like, ‘Let’s do like a cool Best Friend Squad pose.’ I wasn’t supposed to smile, but I couldn’t stop my cheeks.’ ” Many hugs were shared. “She said ‘Ria, I’ll see you online, but I’ve been waiting for this moment since the Minneapolis show.’ ”

Yes, Swift is probably briefed by her management about her fans prior to meet-and-greets — and, if you’re particularly cynical, you could argue all of this is just part of her carefully crafted image as a wholesome friend to all. But it seems like an awful lot of work for it not to be, at its heart, sincere. I mean, Swift invites her fans to her apartment. She bakes them pumpkin cookies and lets them pose for selfies with her cats, Olivia and Meredith. She crashes their bridal showers and sends them Christmas presents. She makes her fans feel special. As Ria says, “She wanted to meet me.” Thanks to social media, celebrities are more accessible than ever. But Swift doesn’t just make herself accessible, she makes herself available.

Of course, Swift doesn’t have to do any of this. But she understands without fans like Ria, she isn’t Taylor Swift, a $1-million-a-day-grossing pop juggernaut. It’s a two-way relationship.

Indeed, fans wield real economic power. They make or break people. And yet, the more dedicated ones are often written off as being silly and immature. Even the language often used to describe fans, and fangirls in particular — “obsessive,” “stalker” — suggests being a fan is something shameful. Instead of having their passions encouraged, they are often belittled or mocked.

In our interview, Ria often qualified her own fandom with the word “embarrassing.” She referred to her Twitter account as “embarrassing.” She says her bedroom — a former shrine to Swift — got “really embarrassing,” so she packed most of it up, leaving up two posters and a few other meaningful pieces of ephemera.

“I learned different ways to appreciate her. I bought her music books and performed her songs at talent shows and stuff,” says Ria, a self-described band geek who plays piano and guitar.

She’d like to work in music someday and sees her favourite singer as a role model. “She doesn’t start her shows late, which I really respect,” she says. “She didn’t get lucky off of YouTube or X Factor. She moved to Nashville and she went to every management place, handing out her demo. And when they said no, she didn’t give up.” She admires how Swift handles herself in the press and, yes, how she interacts with her fans.

And there’s nothing embarrassing about that. Passion is a wonderful thing, however it manifests itself.

jen.zoratti@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @JenZoratti