We’re just a couple weeks away from the release of Taylor Swift‘s latest album, Lover, on August 23. And in the lead-up to its release, we’re learning more and more about where Swift is at in her life—through Easter eggs left in her videos and commercials and in interviews, like her latest one for Vogue. (She graces the cover of the magazine’s September issue.)

In the interview, Swift opens up about various aspects of her career, including the shift she saw once she transitioned from a rising star in the industry to a powerful woman. When asked if she was always aware of sexism around her, Swift gives this thoughtful answer: “When I was a teenager, I would hear people talk about sexism in the music industry, and I’d be like, I don’t see it. I don’t understand,” she tells Vogue. “Then I realized that was because I was a kid. Men in the industry saw me as a kid. I was a lanky, scrawny, overexcited young girl who reminded them more of their little niece or their daughter than a successful woman in business or a colleague. The second I became a woman, in people’s perception, was when I started seeing it.”

“It’s fine to infantilize a girl’s success and say, How cute that she’s having some hit songs,” she continues. “How cute that she’s writing songs. But the second it becomes formidable? As soon as I started playing stadiums—when I started to look like a woman—that wasn’t as cool anymore. It was when I started to have songs from Red come out and cross over, like ‘I Knew You Were Trouble’ and ‘We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together.’”

In the interview, she also reveals a moment where she realized she wanted to be more vocal about her stance on LGBTQ+ issues. Swift describes driving in a car with her friend and collaborator, Todrick Hall, when he asked her what she would do if her son was gay. “The fact that he had to ask me…shocked me and made me realize that I had not made my position clear enough or loud enough,” she says. “If my son was gay, he’d be gay. I don’t understand the question.”

“If he was thinking that, I can’t imagine what my fans in the LGBTQ community might be thinking,” she continued. “It was kind of devastating to realize that I hadn’t been publicly clear about that.” Since then, she has spoken out publicly against certain political candidates and stood up for the Equality Act, along with more overt lyrics (and cameos) in her latest singles in support of the community, as well as a surprise appearance at the Stonewall Inn during Pride.

Swift explains why she wasn’t more vocal sooner, too. “Rights are being stripped from basically everyone who isn’t a straight white cisgender male,” she says. “I didn’t realize until recently that I could advocate for a community that I’m not a part of. It’s hard to know how to do that without being so fearful of making a mistake that you just freeze. Because my mistakes are very loud. When I make a mistake, it echoes through the canyons of the world. It’s clickbait, and it’s a part of my life story, and it’s a part of my career arc.”

You can read the full Vogue interview here.

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