Speak Now, or Forever Hold Your Peace (Taylor’s Version)
August 28, 2025
Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce are engaged, and America is thrilled. Ms. Swift is the most influential pop star on the planet, and her announcement on Instagram had more than 10 million likes within the first hour. News outlets fell over themselves to get the word out, speculating on what her wedding dress will look like, where her ring is from, and who her bridesmaids will be. Even the president congratulated the couple.
As unserious as the reaction has been, the very public engagement could be good for American culture. Marriage and fertility rates have descended to all-time lows in recent years. An analysis from Morgan Stanley projects that by 2030 45% of American women 25 to 44 will be single and without children. In 2023 only 72% of 18-year-old women in the U.S. said they were likely to have children, down from 85% in the late 2000s.
