Swift told the NYU class — perfectionists, she noted, by definition of their achievement — about growing up under the crushing weight of being a young female role model. Every interviewer included 'slight barbs' about her 'one day running off the rails.' The message was clear: if she made any mistake, 'the entire earth would fall off its axis and it would be entirely my fault, and I would go to pop star jail forever and ever.' She then systematically demolished the premise. Being told 'no' had made her sit alone and write the songs that launched her career. Label executives who rejected her at 13 had pushed her to MySpace, where she found her first real audience. Journalists who wrote critical pieces forced her 'to learn about who I actually am.' Public humiliation 'forced me to devalue the ridiculous notion of minute by minute ever-fluctuating social relevance and likability.' Each rejection was reframed not as an obstacle but as a redirect.