Taylor Swift says "women are more than incubators"

Speaking to PEOPLE magazine, Taylor - who features on one of the People of the Year 2019 covers along with Jennifer Lopez, Jennifer Aniston and Michelle Obama - said: "The more women are able to voice their discomfort in social situations, the more it becomes the social norm that people who ask the questions at parties like 'When are you going to start a family?' to someone as soon as they turn 25 are a little bit rude.

"It's good that we're allowed to say, 'Hey, just so you know, we're more than incubators. You don't have to ask that of someone just because they're in their mid-20s and they're a female."

And Taylor admitted that speculation about her personal life has taken a toll on her.

She said: "So much was made of my personal life at such a young age, I started to feel like anything that I did that wasn't successful, like a breakup or anything that people were making such a big deal of, [would leave] such a huge mark on me that would last forever.

"I really love that there are advocates out there in the world being very vocal about the fact that aging is not a slow march to irrelevancy, death and decay."

Taylor is currently dating actor Joe Alwyn, 28, and Taylor previously revealed she prefers to keep the relationship out of the spotlight as she doesn't want her romance "up for discussion".

She said: "I've learned that if I do, people think it's up for discussion, and our relationship isn't up for discussion. If you and I were having a glass of wine right now, we'd be talking about it - but it's just that it goes out into the world. That's where the boundary is. And that's where my life has become manageable. I really want to keep it feeling manageable."