Analyzing Taylor’s ‘Stay Beautiful’ Lyrics Meaning
“Stay Beautiful” – Taylor Swift’s track 8 from her debut self-titled album – is, on the surface, a sweet serenade to a love interest.
But as with any Swift song, we know there’s deeper meaning hiding in the depths of the Stay Beautiful lyrics.
Let’s take a look at the Stay Beautiful lyrics meaning, and what it can tell us about Taylor’s early songwriting a love life.
Stay Beautiful by Taylor Swift
- Title: Stay Beautiful
- Track 8: Taylor Swift, debut album (2006)
- Written By: Taylor Swift, Liz Rose
- Pen: Fountain
- Lyrics via Genius
Stay Beautiful Meaning: Narrative Synopsis
- Setting: Hometown, high school.
- Characters: Narrator (Taylor), crush (Cory)
- Mood: Upbeat but with longing.
- Conflict: He doesn’t know she has feelings for him.
- Quest: Capture these images in your mind; remember these things.
- Inciting Incident: Seeing her crush smile.
- Symbols & Metaphors: Radio, beauty, story, daydream, jungle.
- Theme: Longing for a crush.
What was the Secret Message in Stay Beautiful?
The secret message in Stay Beautiful was “Shake n bake.” Maybe it was an inside joke with the subject of the song?
Who is Stay Beautiful About?
This is a cute little song that Taylor says was inspired by a high school crush.
“This is a song I wrote about a guy I never dated! Wow, right? This song is about a guy I thought was cute, and never really talked to him much. But something about him inspired this song, just watching him.” –Genuis
In this context, we can tell that this song is written from a distance, and it’s about observing beauty, admiring a crush from afar, and daydreams about what it would be like to be with them.
Stay Beautiful Lyrics Meaning: Line by Line
“Cory’s eyes are like a jungle” is telling us his eyes are green without saying the color, and also tell us they’re deep and lush without saying so. Already, Taylor is great at simile and imagery.
“He smiles, it’s like the radio, he whispers songs into my window” doesn’t mean he’s actually whispering songs into her window. It means he inspires songs, “whispered” in to the window of her mind.
But the songs are in a language that nobody knows. It’s only their language: their electric connection that only they share. The feeling it gives her is happiness like listening to the radio, new material for the soundtrack of her emotional life.
“There’s pretty girls on every corner,” she says, who “watch him as he’s walking home.” This means he’s the object of desire for everyone: a big high school crush for the whole school.
“Does he know,” she asks us, and then “will you ever know?” that she’s crushing on him, too? Just like all those other girls?
But the question changes the perspective halfway through. First she asks us as her audience: ‘do you think he knows’? Then asks him directly if he’ll ever know.
Who is Cory from the Stay Beautiful Lyrics?
No, it’s not Cory Monteith – she hadn’t even met the late actor by this point.
Taylor hasn’t revealed directly who the ‘Cory’ from the song is, or if it’s a real person. Swifties theorize that it’s someone Taylor went to high school with, who really does have “eyes like a jungle.”
Chorus: “You and I Are a Story”
The first verse left off with “do you know,” then the chorus replies: “you’re beautiful.” Does he know how gorgeous he is, “every little piece, love.” This is all of him: mind, body, soul.
“You’re really gonna be someone,” she assures him, “ask anyone.” This is ironic, as Taylor is the one who is “really gonna be someone.”
“I hope your life leads you back to my door,” she says, “but if it don’t, stay beautiful.” There’s a sense of selfless love here, as she wants happiness and success for Cory, even if he’s not with her.
Overall, the use of “beautiful” and “stay beautiful” don’t just mean his outer beauty (sure, they mean that, too, with his “jungle” eyes). But it means she thinks he’s beautiful as a person inside and out, and not only for who he is. She also uses “beauty” here to describe how she feels around him.
“Stay Beautiful” could therefore also mean she wants this feeling to last inside of her – she wants this lovely crush phase to last and last.
Verse 2: “Taking Pictures in My Mind”
Cory is being his charming self in the second verse, and Taylor is savoring every moment of it.
“I’m taking pictures in my mind,” she says, “so I can save ’em for a rainy day.” When the going gets tough, she can look back at these mental pictures to remember the good times.
She observes and admires Cory, yet there’s a sense of hesitation or inability to express these feelings directly (“It’s hard to make a conversation / When he’s taking my breath away”).
The breathing metaphor comes up again here, but instead of being about suffocation, it’s about awe. This is a more lighthearted use of this metaphor, unlike the drowning imagery of Tied Together With a Smile.
The “picture” metaphor here – similarly – is the opposite of Picture to Burn. Here, she means it as keeping a lovely memory, rather than burning it down.
She’ll use this again in Never Grow Up to depict memories of comforting times.
Bridge: “You and I Are A Story That Never Gets Told”
“If you and I are a story that never gets told” uses a common Taylor metaphor for romance as a storybook (Story of Us, Love Story, All Too Well, Long Live, and many others).
If they’re only a story, “if what you are is a daydream I’ll never get to hold, at least you’ll know.”
If their relationship is not tangible – if it doesn’t come to fruition – then the song is her message to him: he’s beautiful.
Stay Beautiful Meaning: Final Thoughts
Overall, the song is about unspoken love and admiration, infused with hope, bittersweet acceptance, and an appreciation of inner beauty. It’s a celebration of someone’s potential and worth, even if their paths might not ultimately align.
It’s a very sweet story from Taylor about loving someone from afar.
💚 How well do you know Taylor’s first album? Take the Debut Lyrics Quiz! 💚
Read More: Analyzing all the Songs on Taylor’s Debut Album
