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Oct 02, 2023

Taylor Swift Walking Backwards

Taylor Swift just might be a genius.

In addition to being a 25-year-old multiplatinum millionaire singer with numerous awards to her name, the pop star also has a unique way of avoiding the paparazzi: She walks backwards.

Earlier in May, a photo began to circulate on Tumblr that showed Taylor Swift on an LA hiking trail walking awkwardly while a man pointed at her.

Fans were confused, comparing the photo to someone trying to pass a roadside sobriety test.

But then Swift, who is an avid Tumblr user herself, responded and said she walked the entire nature trail backwards to avoid her picture being taken by the paparazzi, reports celebrity blog Just Jared.

Her security team — the man in the photo — was directing her where to go.

The singer wrote on her Tumblr:

I saw the guy with the camera and wasn't in the mood so I hiked the whole trail backwards and my security told me when to make turns.

Ah, the tranquility of the great outdoo-TAYLORCANYOULOOKOVERHEREGIVEUSASMILEAREYOUDATINGJYCGUCKVHKCTAYLORHEYTAYLOR

This is not the first time Swift has walked backwards to keep the paparazzi from getting pictures of her face. Back in March, video surfaced of the pop star walking backwards out of a garage in West Hollywood with her bodyguard guiding her the whole way.

The idea behind her method was that no one could make money off the images if they didn't see her face. But the only problem is that the end result was so weird looking that it ended up backfiring and going viral.

But that won't stop Swift from taking great lengths to thwart the photographers. Earlier this year in February, Swift posted a picture of her with the sisters of the band Haim that showed her belly button.

Greetings from Maui! @haimtheband

A photo posted by Taylor Swift (@taylorswift) on Jan 23, 2015 at 5:20pm PST

Fans were stunned since previously the singer had said she would refuse to show her belly button, but Swift explained to BBC1 Radio's "Breakfast Show with Nick Grimshaw" that she didn't want the paparazzi to make money off the shots, so she beat them to it:

Basically, on the last day [of vacation] we see a fishing boat a half a mile away. We were like, 'That's a little weird. We're in the middle of the ocean scuba diving.' My security gets out binoculars and sees that they have a huge long-lens camera. At which point, we go back to the beach and we realize, 'Okay, so they got pictures of us in our bikinis, like, I don't want them to make like $100,000 for stalking us.' So we're like, 'Get up on the bow of the boat. We're taking better bikini shots, so they don't make as much money on theirs.'

Swift also isn't alone when it comes to celebrities using out-there methods to avoid paparazzi shots. Kim Kardashian famously used a body double on her honeymoon with Kanye West to try to trick the paparazzi, and Daniel Radcliffe wore the same outfit after leaving a West End theater in London for six months during "Equus" so that the pictures always looked like they were from the same night.

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