Wanna know how to make it big like [lastfm link_type="artist_info"]Taylor Swift[/lastfm]?

In an interview with London’s Daily Mail, Taylor Swift shares the secret to her success: pouring all the heartbreak and rejection she has ever received into songs.

It’s hard to believe the talented, tall, and model-pretty singer could ever be rejected, but the interview allows Taylor to share some of the experiences that led to the chart-topping songs.

For instance, back in high school as her local fame was rising, she called all her friends to go to the mall. Each of them said they were busy. So Taylor says her mom said, “You know what? You want to go to the mall, let’s go together.” And we ran into this entire group of girls who had told me they were busy that night. In situations like that my mum has known exactly the right time to run away. There are situations where you have to encourage someone to be tough and there are times when you should just run. So we got in the car and we drove to the mall that’s an hour and a half away but is a better mall.”

That experience led to the song, “Best Days of Your Life.”

Swift shared that the entire school experience gave her drive and inspiration: “In school, I dealt with a bunch of different kinds of being alone. There’s being alone because no one talks to you. There’s feeling alone when you walk up to a table at lunch and you’re not welcome to sit down. There’s standing on a stage at a local festival with your acoustic guitar that’s as big as you and some kid from your grade screams obscenities at you. It’s school. It’s what everyone goes through at some point. And the only thing that got me through really tough days was writing songs about it. I would sit there on those lonely days and say, “It’s OK, because I can write a song about this later.” I’ve carried that mantra with me since: any time I feel pain, rejection, heartbreak, I subliminally say to myself, “I can write a song about this and then it will feel better.”’