Taylor Swift

The country-pop singer is on every radio, talk show and celebrity blog. She was last year's best-selling musician in any genre, and she's likely to be second only to Michael Jackson in 2009. Forbes just ranked her the 69th most powerful celebrity in the world, and she was Rolling Stone's March 15 cover girl.

Her second album, “Fearless,” was the first by a female country artist to spend eight weeks at No.1. Swift's single, “Love Story,” has sold more digital downloads than any country song in history. And her show at the Staples Center in Los Angeles sold out in two minutes.

Swift, by the way, is 19 years old.

The singer from the tiny town of Wyomissing, Pa., has proved to be a legitimate phenomenon over the last three years, coming out of nowhere to sell more than 14million records and win several major awards, including album of the year from the Academy of Country Music for “Fearless.”

Her guileless personality and an endearing habit of forever wearing her heart on her sleeve has made Swift an instant icon to teenage girls who connect deeply to her songs. She's an accomplished writer with a gift for matching melody with message, and the stories she tells speak to the trials of growing up feeling like an awkward outsider — and being smart enough to realize why. COURIER