The Eras Tour is coming to an end, and Taylor Swift’s song “You’re On Your Own, Kid” made friendship bracelets a trend bigger than the whole sky that will stay, stay, stay in the Swiftie community for evermore.
“I think it’s (making friendship bracelets) a way to connect, and I think a lot of it is giving people the opportunity to interact with others,” said 22-year-old Asheville resident Alexis Taylor. “I think it appeals to our sense of childhood. It’s something we would make when we were kids and it kind of brings that back, the lightness and fun.”
She said Swifties declared making friendship bracelets and trading them a trend after listening to the fifth track off of “Midnights,” because it allows the fans to connect easily.
“I think it’s sweet and unique. It brings people closer together in a simple way,” said Taylor while reminiscing on her time at the last 2023 show of The Eras Tour. “I went to one (Taylor Swift-themed) DJ event in Asheville at the Salvage Station.”
Taylor said she saw people wearing and trading friendship bracelets in the crowded venue, and it was an easier way to be fearless toward her fellow Swifties because of the epiphany that everyone has at least one thing in common that starts conversations: Taylor Swift.
Beaufort resident Alicen Cashwell, 23, said she attended a Taylor Swift trivia night back at her college bar, Uptown Brewing Company.
“It was a bar I went to regularly, but that night was the most crowded it had ever been,” she said. “They were pulling out tables and chairs from the back. There were so many people. At least one person from every group was wearing friendship bracelets.”
Cashwell said while at events inspired by Taylor Swift, the Swiftie community made the world feel like a smaller place for a moment.
“It’s so large and so hectic and so crazy, so it can feel very overwhelming but when I traded bracelets with someone, we acted like we knew each other for years,” she said while fiddling with some friendship bracelets she traded during The Eras Tour. “It was such a (good) way to have community in this very large fan group.”
Wilmington resident Abigail Sena attended The Eras Tour on April 28. She said friendship bracelets transcend generations and hit nostalgic nerves because she used to wear them when she was in middle and high school and now, after two decades, it’s like a walk down memory lane to see fashion history repeat itself.
“So many lines in the song ‘You’re On Your Own, Kid,’ kind of touch on girlhood and all the inner struggles we face as women. I think the line ‘Make the friendship bracelets, take the moment and taste it,’ means to be taken literally and figuratively, saying do the little things that bring your heart happiness and lightness no matter how girly or silly or whatever other kind of label people will try to put on you. Do it for you,” Sena said.
The 33-year-old said people can call it what they want, but she thinks making and trading friendship bracelets is a reminder that while the people in the Swiftie community have all faced obstacles in their lives, they still show up to live in the moment with strangers who are all appreciating the same thing.
Cashwell said she felt happiness during the time she spent making friendship bracelets because it opened the floodgates for the memories of her younger self that she associated songs released earlier in Swift’s career with.
“When I’m making a friendship bracelet, I think, ‘Oh, I should make one with ‘White Horse’ on it because that was my favorite (song) when I was a kid.’ Relistening and going back to that place where I’m making a craft that’s supposed to be for kids, younger, listening to an album that I listened to when I was younger made me think, ‘This is really healing my inner child in a way that I didn’t think I needed to,’” said the Beaufort resident.
She said Swifties associate Taylor Swift’s music with periods of their lives, especially because the wave of nostalgia hits different during the activity of making friendship bracelets.
“I made some for every era and then revisited these eras when I was making the bracelets. There’s something about growing up with Taylor (Swift). When you think about certain aspects of her career, you also go back to that time in your life,” said the 23-year-old.
Taylor said making friendship bracelets exemplified a form of self-love after she spent hours at her kitchen table making friendship bracelets to trade.
“It brings you back that peace,” said the Asheville resident.
Sena said it takes the stresses of being a mom and business owner on top of her everyday life and puts those anxieties at ease for a second. She said it enables her to get wrapped up in something just for fun.
“It helps (you) practice self-love because you take the time to do the small little things just for yourself, not caring of the judgment of how you’ll be perceived by others who might not agree with it or call it silly and little,” Sena said. “Nothing is silly or little if it brings you joy, and I think that’s the takeaway message in all this: Love yourself enough to indulge in the silly, little things that set your soul ablaze.”
