Is Taylor Swift Releasing a Novel?
Sun reports Fast filed a new trademark application for a book called A girl named Girlwhich she wrote as a teenager. The publication adds: “The new brand covers merchandise for the book as well as audio versions, giving the impression that Taylor is finally getting ready to release it.”
It is worth noting, as specified by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO)is that in order to maintain the registration of a trademark in force, there are documents that must be submitted at certain intervals after the initial registration. Sun notes that Swift first filed a trademark for the book in 2015; maintaining a trademark requires filings “between the ninth and tenth year after the filing date,” according to the USPTO.
Considering that nine years have passed since 2015, it's entirely possible that Swift is simply taking the necessary steps to maintain her brand rather than actively preparing for a book release.
Previous public mentions of the book referred to it under a slightly different title than the new report: A girl named Girl
IN 2012 interview with FashionShe spoke about the book, saying:
“We lived in this pool where all these magical things happened. One time a dolphin swam into our pool. We had a family of otters that lived on our dock at night. We’d turn on the lights and you’d see them, you know, hanging out, just being otters. And then one summer a shark washed up on our dock. I ended up writing a novel that summer because I didn’t want to go in the water. I locked myself in a den and wrote a book. When I was 14 [laughs]. Because of the shark!
In 2013 she said in an interview:
“All my friends had gone back to Pennsylvania, and I had nothing to do. I had this epiphany: I was going to be a writer, I was going to write novels, and that would be my career. […] I would write different chapters of this book and send them back to my friends, and I would write them into the book under different names, but I would fully describe their personalities. It was a really fun way to spend a summer. […]
You can convey an idea or a story or fully describe a character or a situation through words and the whole process of editing and re-editing and reimagining and imagining. I think that's what I loved about writing a novel, and that's what I love about poetry and songwriting.”
Then, in a 2015 interview with Swift for GQChuck Klosterman wrote:
“We chat a little about Ryan Adams and a little about books. Swift mentions that she wrote a non-autobiographical novel when she was 14 called A girl named Girland that she’s still with her parents. I ask her what it was about, assuming she’ll laugh. But her recollection of the plot is surprisingly detailed. (It’s about a mother who wants a son but ends up having a girl instead.)”
More recently, a theory has emerged that Swift secretly wrote a novel called Argylewhich was adapted into a 2024 film of the same name. The film was directed by Matthew Vaughn, stop this rumorAlthough, saying, “I'm not a big fan of the internet, and it was actually my daughter who came up to me — that's the power of celebrity and the internet — and said, 'You never told me Taylor wrote a book!' And I look at her and I'm like, 'What are you talking about, Taylor Swift wrote a book? She didn't write a book!' And I laughed because I was like, 'That's not true! She didn't write a book!' But my daughter was convinced.”