40+ of Taylor Swift’s Most Brilliant Easter Eggs, Decoded

When you think of Taylor Swift, several things likely come to mind: cozy cardigans, iconic July 4th parties, football (we said what we said), whether or not you should cut bangs, and—ah yes—Easter eggs. Taylor’s obsession with Easter eggs is a true “the limit does not exist” situation, and she’s only gotten more creative as the years have gone by. Tay’s Easter eggs used to merely be hidden in her liner notes, but now she’s out here hiding clues in music videos, song lyrics, tour visuals, and Instagram captions. Even the outfits she wears on red carpets aren’t immune from fan analysis.

Not that you can blame anyone. Taylor herself told The Washington Post, “When I was 15 and putting together my first album, […] I decided to encode the lyrics with hidden messages using capital letters. That’s how it started, and my fans and I have since descended into color coding, numerology, word searches, elaborate hints, and Easter eggs.”

She also told Entertainment Weekly how she thinks up Easter eggs, saying, “I think the best messages are cryptic ones. Easter eggs can be left on clothing or jewelry. This is one of my favorite ways to do this because you wear something that foreshadows something else, and people don’t usually find out this one immediately, but they know you’re probably sending a message. They’ll figure it out in time. Lots of examples of this exist through the history of my career.”

Now, when we say Easter eggs, we (read: Tay) mean a few things: hidden teasers for new albums or songs, subtle signs hinting at who a song might be about, callbacks to other eras/songs/albums that are like mini nostalgic scavenger hunts for Swifties, and numbers (13 and 1989, mainly) hidden everywhere, just ’cause. In other words, she DOES IT ALL . And all for us.

It’s really about turning new music into an event for my fans and trying to entertain them in playful, mischievous, clever ways,” Taylor also told the Post. “As long as they still find it fun and exciting, I’ll keep doing it.”

SPEAKING OF WHICH, ahem, here are 40+ of Taylor’s most brilliant Easter eggs ever, helpfully decoded. You’re welcs!