Lost in the brain cell-decimating discourse over whether the romance between Super Bowl champ Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift is actually some DNC psyop (it’s not) is exactly why hoards of young women care for the pop sensation. Plenty of beautiful young women write bingeable ballads about breakups and BFFs, and of all the pop starlets gunning for awards, Swift doesn’t even necessarily have the most raw talent. But in a culture that applauds arrested development and a lack of introspection, Swift is a rare celebrity that girls identify with specifically because they have grown up with her. As a point of comparison, take Ariana Grande as a foil.

Like Swift, Grande is a millennial chart topper known for her exemplary output, commitment to thematic and aesthetic cohesion, and a history of high-profile romances. But unlike Swift, who spent the pandemic churning out a series of stripped-down albums that met the melancholy moment, Grande took an effective hiatus from pop. She got married to a real estate agent in 2021, started filming the motion picture adaptation of Wicked, and announced her separation from said husband in 2023. Grande found herself in the center of a media firestorm late last year when it turned out Grande was having an affair with Wicked co-star Ethan Slater, who was not only also married but a new father to a baby born in 2022.