When my friend and I started the Instagram account @swiftiesofville on Oct. 23, 2021, we never imagined it would receive the love that it did.
The account was inspired by a similar account on Instagram called @harriesofville. My friend and I loved that account and wanted to create a similar community for the Taylor Swift fans here at Millersville University.
My friend stopped helping with the account when her school workload got heavy, and I was scared to run it by myself. I was afraid that I wouldn’t have enough ideas or skills to run this account on my own. Despite those concerns, I continued running it because I loved that account and the community that it had created.
In the almost two and a half years that I ran that account, we accumulated 700 followers, one of whom was Dr. Wubah himself. That was always my biggest goal, so to have achieved it before the account was taken away from me is a big honor.
On the night that “The Tortured Poets Department” was announced, I posted an edit of the cover with the signature Millersville face tattoos edited onto Taylor Swift’s face. After this post went up, I was informed that my account would be suspended due to Instagram’s community guidelines. Despite having “not associated with Millersville University or Taylor Swift,” in the bio, my account was taken down because it was allegedly impersonating Taylor Swift.
Despite my best efforts to appeal the suspension, Instagram decided to permanently disable the account. After getting the news, I made the difficult decision to retire @swiftiesofville.
I’m very proud of what that account accomplished. I’m proud of accumulating 700 followers and of all the posts that I made, which helped my editing skills improve immensely.
Thank you to all the fans of @swiftiesofville for your loyalty over the years. Thank you to those who liked and shared all the posts, who interacted with me in the comments, and even the person who messaged me to tell me that my account was a factor in their decision to attend Millersville.
I wish our experience wasn’t cut short, but I am so grateful for the support @swiftiesofville received. Thank you.
