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The Daily Wildcat

The Daily Wildcat

 

    Taylor Swift’s desert double

    Courtesy+of+Jana+ZillsTaylor+Swift+performs+during+The+Red+Tour+in+St.+Louis+in+March+2013.
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    Courtesy of Jana Zills

    Taylor Swift performs during The Red Tour in St. Louis in March 2013.

    It would seem that every persona Taylor Swift takes on starts a new trend among her generation. From cowgirl chic to elegant, young woman, Swift always receives adoration from her fans for her charming styles. Teenage girls and young adult women alike covet Swift’s iconic look, but few have ever come as close as Morgan Jensen when it comes to replicating her image.

    For Jensen, a graphic design junior at Northern Arizona University and mega fan of Swift since the eighth grade, March 22 meant the last day of spring break. However, that night turned out to be much more exciting than she anticipated. Jensen’s idol reposted and commented on one of her photos from spring break in which she mimicked Swift’s look. 

    “I was on spring break, and I hung out with my friend, Kasey,” Jensen said. “She’s a big Taylor Swift fan, too, and we were making cookie recipes that Taylor Swift had given Kasey, [because] Kasey has met Taylor. So, we were baking Taylor Swift’s cookies, and we decided to, like, put red lipstick on me and take a bunch of pictures, [because] why not?”

    As a tall, slender blonde, Jensen resembles the pop singer. But with the added red lipstick and some sunglasses, the two look almost identical. Of course, social media took a major part in allowing Jensen’s world to collide with Swift’s.

    “Kasey posted all of the pictures all over her Tumblr and Instagram and everything,” Jensen said. “I posted a couple, too. … Taylor Swift saw them, and, so, she reposted it and commented, ‘lol I thought that was me.’”

    Jensen said she had no idea that Swift had reposted the picture of her and her friend Kasey Andrew until she took a break from her homework to check her phone, which had exploded with messages of excitement from her friends.

    “I checked her blog, and I saw my face, and I was just super confused for a while,” Jensen said. “And then I couldn’t focus for, like, the next two days.”

    Since then, Swift’s nonchalant post launched the news media into a frenzy to get more details on the artist’s look-alike. Jensen said she has interviewed with a variety of different media organizations, including AZCentral, ABC15, KMLE Country radio in Phoenix, BBC Radio in London and some others.

    However, March 22 was not the first time Jensen has been mistaken for Taylor Swift. She gave some details of another occasion in which her similar appearance to the artist caused a riot among fans.

    Jensen said she traveled to Nashville in 2013 to see her favorite celebrity perform in the “RED” tour. Clad in a Swift T-shirt, sunglasses and red lipstick, Jensen definitely made an entrance. As Jensen made her way to the venue, fans kept stopping her and wanting their picture taken with Swift’s look-alike. Although Jensen made it clear that she was not Swift, the fans still wanted photos with her.

    “When we got to the outside of the venue, it was even worse, [because] that’s where all the fans were, so it was just madness,” Jensen said. “It was mostly little girls and their moms being like, ‘Can we please have a photo?’ … And then this circle formed around me, and people were trying to jump in and get photos kind of like at Disneyland with the characters. Then my friend just yelled out, ‘Line up if you want a picture,’ and this huge line formed.”

    Even though Jensen’s friend made everyone aware that the person they were waiting in line for was not, in fact, Taylor Swift, the fans remained persistent to get a photo with Jensen. Jensen added that the scene had also caught the attention of Swift’s security team. The team told Jensen that they would be interested in hiring her for double work for Swift.

    Many people are amazed at the resemblance between the pop singer and Jensen. Rebecca Rose, writer for Cosmopolitan magazine, said in her article on Jensen, “I am convinced she is an actual DNA clone of Taylor. She has to be.”

    Even though the chaos that has ensued since Swift’s comment put Jensen in the limelight, Jensen’s true goal is not fame. Her close friend, Laurie Lipscomb, a computer science freshman at NAU, attested to that.

    “I just really hope that through all of this, she gets to meet Taylor Swift,” Lipscomb said, “because, to her, she literally doesn’t care about anyone knowing her name or being famous. She just really wants to meet Taylor Swift.”

    Lipscomb will attend the “1989” concert with Jensen in August. Jensen hopes that at the concert, she will get to meet Swift — someone that she has admired as a person and as an artist for years.

    “It’s rare to find artists who continue to make such high quality things, and she’s such a good writer and just pours her heart out,” Jensen said. “I just really hope I can meet her and thank her for everything she’s done for me.”

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    Follow Madison Scavarda on Twitter.

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