‘There weren’t a lot of people with nice things to say about her’: Woman who ‘went to high school with Taylor Swift’ claims jealous fellow students ‘HATED’ the singer – and were left furious after she penned songs about local guys

A woman who said she went to the same high school as Taylor Swift before she became a superstar has claimed that a lot of the singer’s fellow students ‘hated’ her because they were ‘jealous’ when she started to achieve her music success. Jessica McLane, now 30, said that she attended Hendersonville High School in Nashville, Tennessee, with Taylor, now 32, for less than a year in 2006 – when she was a freshman and when the popstar was a junior.

Taylor, who grew up Wyomissing, Pennsylvania, moved to Tennessee when she was 14 so she could pursue a career in country music, and she was a student at Hendersonville High School for two-and-a-half years – before she ultimately left to become homeschooled after her career took off. Now, Jessica has dished on what the Grammy-Award-winning artist was really like before she found fame, claiming that while she herself hardly talked to Taylor, other students told her that she was ‘b***hy.’

‘I went to the same high school as Taylor Swift, we grew up in the same town,’ she said in a viral TikTok video recently, which has been viewed more than 6.4 million times. ‘When she first started becoming super successful, most people hated her. Keep in mind, these are her peers, this isn’t, like, just random people on the internet. ‘There were not a lot of people in high school who had nice things to say about her … There were general rumors about her being b***hy. [People would say], “She said this, she said that, she was mean.”‘

Taylor famously caught the attention of music mogul Scott Borchetta at an industry showcase at Nashville’s Bluebird Café in 2005, and he went on to sign her to Big Machine Records and ultimately helped her launch her massive career. She released her debut album, called Taylor Swift, in October 2006, and it quickly skyrocketed her into the spotlight, peaking at number five on the US Billboard 200 and staying on the chart for more than 150 weeks.

But as her career took off, Jessica said her ‘jealous’ classmates started to spread vicious rumors that Taylor’s family had ‘bought her fame’ and had bribed Scott with money to get him to sign her to his label. She explained that so many other students were ‘trying to break into the industry,’ and that they were filled with envy when Taylor made it and they didn’t. ‘Jealousy was definitely a thing,’ she stated. ‘The 16, 17-year-olds who were trying to have a career in music at Hendersonville were playing downtown or at the local coffee shop, not winning awards.

‘It’s not that these people weren’t talented, it’s just that most people don’t make it. Also, back then, Taylor didn’t have as good of control over her voice as she does now, so there were a lot of people in high school who [felt they] were vocally a lot better.’ She added that the guys who inspired some of Taylor’s songs were unhappy after she started releasing music about them, which added fuel to the fire.

‘Also, the guys she was writing these songs about they were still in school, they were still there,’ she continued. ‘And now they have a hit song about them talking about what a s**ty boyfriend they are, you know?’ Taylor left school months later, and graduated via home schooling – before she went on to become of the most well-known artists on the globe.