Taylor Swift fans are a rabid bunch. Known as “Swifties,” they give “Beliebers” a run for their money in terms of dominating social media and album purchases.

Talylor Swift recently told the Telegraph that she has started to pay more attention to her fans, responding to them personally. She says they are not just an integral part of her career, business-wise, but of her life personally.

“I love them. They are cool and smart and hilarious and focused on the right things. I want to make the most of this cultural relevance or success or whatever you want to call it, because it’s not going to last. I have to be as good a person [as I can] while my name matters to them. Because it’s not always going to matter to kids who are 15 and really struggling with who they want to be or [because] their friends were brutal to them at school that day. That’s actual turmoil. I have to do everything I can to make their day better while I still can.

Taylor Swift uses interaction with her fans as a way to ground herself, reminding her that some people have struggles that she will likely never have to experience.

“My fans make fun of me – it’s really cool. They have all these Gifs of me making an idiot of myself or tripping and falling on stage. They bring humour back into it for me. I get too serious sometimes – you can probably tell – and they bring me back to like, ‘OK, I’m not really doing anything that difficult. I just need to calm down.'”

One of the ways Taylor Swift loves to stay in touch with her fans is by sending them gifts.

[Sending presents] is fun for me. If I go a week without sending something, I start to feel sad. I’m getting to know them on a person-by-person basis. When I pick people to send packages to, I go on their social-media sites for the last six months and figure out what they like or what they are going through. Do they like photography? I’ll get them a 1980s Polaroid camera. Do they like vintage stuff? I’ll go to an antiques place and get them 1920s earrings. Do they work out a lot? I’ll get them workout stuff. When you actually get to know them on a person-by-person basis, you realize what you’re doing is special and sacred and it matters.”