"Never Grow Up" Song Meaning

Today's Taylor Swift song is "Never Grow Up" from her Speak Now album.

When I first heard this song I did not relate to it as well, but the more I hear it the more I understand.  It made me think of a little baby growing up and the mom not wanting the baby to grow up.  I think it is amazing Taylor has such great insight because she does not have kids, but she really sees how it is from the perspective of a parent.  

Who is this song about?

It is about Taylor! The secret hint is "MOVED OUT IN JULY".  She moved out from her parents house July 2010.

In the first verse she talks about a little baby, "Your little hand's wrapped around my finger".  The second verse, the child is 14, "You're in the car on the way to the movies/And you're mortified your mom's dropping you off/But don't make her drop you off around the block/Remember that she's getting older too".  She then starts talking about herself in the middle part of the song, "Take pictures in your mind of your childhood room/Memorize what it sounded like when your dad gets home".  She mentions her little brother, "remember the words said/And all your little brother's favorite songs".  And then mentions herself, "I just realized everything I have is someday gonna be gone".  The next verse she is "in my new apartment/In a big city, they just dropped me off/It's so much colder that I thought it would be/So I tuck myself in and turn my night light on".  She realizes it is not like home, it is scary, "Oh I don't wanna grow up, wish I'd never grown up/I could still be little/Oh I don't wanna grow up, wish I'd never grown up It could still be simple".  Then she brings the song away from herself again.  "Don't you ever grow up, it could stay this simple/Won't let nobody hurt you/Won't let no one break your heart."

Click here for lyrics to the song, "Never Grow Up".

Taylor said on her website, "'Never Grow Up' is a song about the fact that I don't quite know how I feel about growing up. It's tricky. Growing up happens without you knowing it. Growing up is such a crazy concept because a lot of times when you were younger you wish you were older. I look out into a crowd every night and I see a lot of girls that are my age and going through exactly the same things as I'm going through. Every once in a while I look down and I see a little girl who is seven or eight, and I wish I could tell her all of this. There she is becoming who she is going to be and forming her thoughts and dreams and opinions. I wrote this song for those little girls."

What is her home like? 

Taylor told Rolling stone, "It's going to be my fantasy world. The ceiling of my living room is painted like the night sky. There's a pond in the living room ... The pond is a moat around the fireplace and may possibly have koi fish in it. You step on a stepping stone in the pond in order to get on a spiral staircase, which takes you up to the human-sized bird cage observatory. They're delivering a human-size birdcage, which I'll put a brass telescope in."

Rolling Stone was invited into her apartment in 2012 and described it in an article on her. "There is a pond, complete with koi fish, in the middle of Swift's astonishing, many-colored Nashville condo. It sits beneath a wrought-metal spiral staircase leading to a human-size birdcage that faces floor-to-ceiling windows, with a view stretching to the green mountains beyond downtown. ('It's the most comfortable place in the world,' she says of the wooden cage, built from a sketch she made. 'It's just, like, pillows and comfiness.')

Under the previous owner, this was an ultramodern bachelor pad. Over 18 months of remodeling, Swift gave the condo a sex change and a heavy dose of well-funded OCD whimsy. The ceiling is arranged in multiple motifs – billowing curtains here, a painted indigo night sky there. In one corner, under hanging crystalline stars, sits a giant bunny made of moss. He's wearing a hat. 'It's a whole Peter Pan, Alice in Wonderland structure here,' she says, welcoming me the next morning. 'It's what the inside of my brain looks like, essentially.' "

She told Jay Leno November 23, 2010 all about her new life, living on her own.

"I moved in the beginning of the summer. I've been working on this condo in Nasvhille about a year, doing construction. When I walked in, it was really trendy, and I eventually fell in love with it. But the inside of it was like a dude's bachelor ... and I was like, we need to change this and make it cozy and pretty and mismatched! So we ripped out everything [and] put in like barn, hardwood floors, old reclaimed brick ... And the kitchen! Oh my God, I love my kitchen! It's got mismatched colored cabinets and mismatched knobs on cabinets and mismatched chairs ... but it's very girly, and they're well-matched mismatched! There's lots of pillows everywhere."

"I love cooking. It's one of my favorite things to do. And now I have my own kitchen -- so now I can! And I make my bed everyday! [laughs] I didn't used to do that, back when I lived at home. My mom comes over now, and she'll walk in and be like, 'Wow ... so you do this now? You didn't do this before, but you do this now. Great.' [laughs]"

"Because that would be dude-like ... so I was contemplating not having any TVs in my place at all. I was like, do I really need a TV? And then at the end, I realized I did. But I put it in this contraption that I found online, where you can have it hidden, and then have it come up when you want to see it. Because it's a very antique kind of apartment, so I thought, I can't have a big TV mounted on the wall! It would ruin everything. So I had to hide it ...and you push a button, so it comes up! Sometimes when I'm alone, I'll push up, down ... up, down! [laughs] You can do that when you're alone-- and nobody's gonna judge you! [laughs]"

Here's a peek inside her house.

It is scary to grow up and move out on your own.  I was 18 when I moved out and my aunt dropped me off at school.  It was for college.  I wondered how I would fit in, how it would be.  It ended up being one of the best experiences of my life.  Taylor's been moved out for a while now and I think she is enjoying it, even if it does come with heartbreak and loneliness sometimes, that's part of growing up.

*On a side note, I have now been to one of her houses, in NYC.  It was a amazing and she was a perfect host. Taylor thanks for being so nice and opening your homes to fans!