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As the A-list's Girl Squad queen is named winner of the Daily Mail Hot List music category, 19 reasons why EVERYONE wants to be friends with Taylor Swift

Sponsored by Perrier

Taylor Swift was yesterday announced as the winner of the Daily Mail-Perrier Hot List music category
At 25, the singer has already released five hit albums, sold millions of records worldwide and made an estimated $80 million last year
Swift's famed 'girl squad' includes Victoria's Secret supermodels and actresses Lena Dunham and Jaime King

Published: 06:52 EST, 17 September 2015 | Updated: 07:12 EST, 17 September 2015

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She's just 25 years old, but Taylor Swift has already released five hit albums (four of which topped the US charts), sold millions of records worldwide, accrued an estimated net worth of $200m, won seven Grammy awards, and racked up 63.5m followers on Twitter and 46.6m on Instagram. Her most recent collection of songs, 1989, was the US's best-selling album of 2014. Swift, in short, is killing it.

And as if making a reported $80m last year (according to Forbes), counting Karlie Kloss and Lena Dunham among her best friends, and being head-over-heels with Scottish singer and music producer Calvin Harris wasn't enough, now everyone's favorite Wyomissing, Pennsylvania-born chanteuse has been announced as the winner of the Daily Mail-Perrier Hot List music category.

In honor of this shiny new accolade, here are 19 reasons why, like her squad, we all want Swift on speed dial....

Dear Taylor, can we be your friend? Swift is the winner of the Daily Mail Hot List music category

1. She grew up on a Christmas tree farm

Talk about magical childhoods. No wonder she's so sparkly. And looks like a beautiful fairy. And probably smells like hot pecan pie. And gingerbread. Ok, we'll stop now.

2. She adores her fans

When it comes to her Swifties, the singer goes to astonishing lengths to prove just how much they mean to her. She personally responds to their tweets and Facebook messages, sends Christmas presents she's chosen and wrapped herself, makes them break-up mixtapes, pays their college tuition, had a bunch of them star in the video for Shake It Off, gives them relationship advice, invites them to her shows, visits their homes, attends their bridal showers, sends them care packages when they're feeling down.... If she goes a week without sending one of them a gift, she begins to feel sad.

Swift even named her 2012 track Ronan after Ronan Thompson, a little boy who died of cancer, and based the lyrics on blog posts written by Ronan's mother, Maya Thompson. It's enough to make even the most hardened Metallica fan swap sides.

Devoted: When it comes to her Swifties, the singer goes to astonishing lengths to show what they mean to her

3. She carries blank birthday cards in her purse

'I have a lot of birthday cards because you never know when you're going to run into somebody and it's their birthday and it's just like, oh wow, you gave them a birthday card five minutes later.' (Apologies in advance to Miss Swift when she finds this writer standing outside her front door on 14 January 2016.)

4. She wrote her first novel at the age of 12

The star spent the summer vacation writing a novel when she was 12, clocking up an impressive 350 pages but never publishing it. Hurry up, Bloomsbury!

5. She donates A LOT to charity

Swift's never-ending list of philanthropic acts include donating $4m for a new education center at the Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville; $100,000 to the V Foundation for Cancer Research; $50,000 to the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia; $100,000 to the Red Cross to help victims of the 2008 Iowa flood; $100,000 to the Nashville Symphony; $250,000 to schools she attended; $500,000 to help victims of the 2010 Tennessee floods, and 14,000 books to Nashville Public Library.

She has met with countless sick children through the Make-A-Wish Foundation, and was praised for her dedication to others when presented with The Big Help Award by Michelle Obama in 2012.

She was crowned the most charitable celebrity of 2014, topping DoSomething.org's annual Celebs Done Good list for the third year running, after donating all the proceeds from her single Welcome to New York to the city's public schools. She also donated all proceeds from Wildest Dreams, the video to which was shot in Africa, to the African Parks Foundation of America.

6. She loves hugging

Friends. Bandmates. Other celebrities. Fans. Nosy journalists quizzing her incessantly about her love life. Anyone within a 30-yard radius, basically. What can we say? Tay Tay's just gotta lotta love to give.

Affectionate: Swift hugs a fan as she arrives for the BBC Radio 1 Teen Awards in London in 2013

7. She stood up to Apple and Spotify

Swift, who doesn't believe music or any art should be free, removed all her songs from online streaming catalog Spotify in 2014, claiming it wasn't compensating artists correctly. She then penned an open letter to Apple saying their Apple Music service wasn't fair on musicians, prompting the corporate giant to completely change their policy in favor of artists, impressing the pop star no end.

8. She has a lot of time for her female friends...

Swift has talked openly about childhood loneliness, saying that she began writing songs partly because she didn't have very many friends to talk to. Now she keeps her pals close, and by pals we mean Pals. Swift Squad members include Karlie Kloss, Emma Stone, Selena Gomez, Martha Hunt, Jessica Alba, Ellie Goulding, Jaime King, Hailee Steinfeld and Lena Dunham - and many of them showed their support by flanking her in the video to Bad Blood. That's some crew she's got there.

Ultimate girl squad: Taylor on the London leg of her 1989 world tour with, from left, Martha Hunt, Kendall Jenner, Serena Williams, Karlie Kloss, Gigi Hadid and Cara Delevingne

Special moments: Swift was named godmother to close friend Jaime King's second son, Leo Thames

9. ...Even her oldest ones

Taylor hasn't ditched her old friends just because she's an international superstar. She threw her high school BFF Abigail Anderson a huge surprise party for her 25th birthday, and organized for Chris Carrabba, the lead singer of Abigail's favorite band, Dashboard Confessional, to perform.

10. She doesn't let men get in the way of her friendships

The Swift Squad not only share ex-boyfriends, they're also totally cool about it.

'It's almost like the sisterhood has such a higher place on the list of priorities for us,' she told Vanity Fair in her cover interview this month.

'It's so much more important than some guy that it didn't work out with. Now more than ever we need to be good and kind to each other and not judge each other - and just because you have the same taste in men, we don't hold that against each other.'

11. She writes her own songs and actually plays the guitar

Depressingly, not actually that common in the music business. Girl's got genuine talent.

Talented: Swift, pictured performing with Madonna in LA in March, actually plays the guitar

12. She's into pre-show nose-blowing, not cocaine snorting

After footage showing Taylor holding a tissue to her nose backstage at the MTV VMAs was leaked online, her representative clarified the singer was not doing cocaine, she was simply blowing her nose ahead of the performance. We love her so.

13. She shoots pool

Instead of sitting around discussing make-up and stilettos and having pillow fights, Taylor prefers to invite friends round for games of pool in her Tribeca duplex penthouse, an apartment once owned by Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson.

14. She wrote her own host monologue for Saturday Night Live

Taylor Swift was the first SNL host to write her own monologue. She wrote a song called My Monologue Song, featuring cheeky kicks at Joe Jonas and Kanye West, and a kiss for her then-beau Taylor Lautner.

15. She bought her parents a house. And then another one...

Taylor has never forgotten that her parents relocated from their home in Pennsylvania to Nashville, Tennessee, to help the then 14-year-old singer launch her music career – even though at the time they didn't tell her that's why they were moving, so that she wouldn't feel bad. To thank them, the singer has since bought them two enormous mansions in Nashville. Can she be our daughter, too?

16. She sang with (and then double high-fived) Prince William

Taylor joined the Duke of Cambridge and Jon Bon Jovi on stage at the Winter Whites Gala charity evening in London in 2013, giving an impromptu performance of Bon Jovi's Livin' On A Prayer. The event raised more than £1m ($1.5m) for youth homeless organization Centrepoint, and Taylor double high-fived the future king at the end. Superstar.

Team effort: Taylor joined the Duke of Cambridge and Jon Bon Jovi on stage at the Winter Whites Gala charity evening in London in 2013, giving an impromptu performance of Bon Jovi's Livin' On A Prayer

17. She hates discrimination

Following the 2008 murder of Lawrence King, a 15-year-old killed by a classmate, allegedly for being gay, Taylor spoke out: 'On the anniversary of Lawrence's death, we need to remember that he was killed just for being who he was. If we forget, this kind of crime could happen again. My parents taught me never to judge others based on whom they love, what color their skin is, or their religion. Why make life miserable for someone when you could be using your energy for good? We don't need to share the same opinions as others, but we need to be respectful. When you hear people making hateful comments, stand up to them. Point out what a waste it is to hate, and you could open their eyes.'

18. She can cook

Swift is famous for her breakfasts, especially her omelets. Our brunch invite must be lost in the post.

19. Shake It Off

Have you heard that song? Enough said.