Taylor Swift’s look-alike is aware of all too effectively how robust the web may be

CNN
 — 

Life is fairly good for Taylor Swift proper now, however what’s it like strolling round trying like her?

Ashley Leechin can reply that query.

The 29-year-old married mom of two seems a lot just like the 33-year-old Grammy-winning singer and songwriter {that a} video went viral not way back by which a person on the streets of New York Metropolis seems to have an emotional response to mistaking Leechin for Swift.

Leechin just lately advised CNN what she says actually occurred throughout that encounter.

She was in New York Metropolis for a giant Swiftie (because the followers of Swift are identified) meet up when she and a bunch of associates hopped on the subway after studying a tweet that stated Swift was going to be at a Goal retailer within the metropolis.

As soon as they acquired there, Leechin stated there have been lots of of individuals in line and the whispers instantly began questioning if she was the star.

She stated that as she went to inform the shop’s staff that she was not, in reality, Taylor Swift, she was approached by a younger man who seemed to be crying.

“It was nearly like a shaking, crying and I used to be caught off guard,” Leechin recalled. “He just about was similar to, ‘Oh my God, Taylor, I like you a lot. I like you.’ And it wasn’t till he began smiling once I was similar to, ‘Oh, you’re joking.’”

He would have been forgiven had it been a authentic case of mistaken id, given how Leechin has nailed Swift’s look, voice and persona.

A lot so, she has a reasonably wholesome following on her standard TikTok account.

Leechin stated she was in center faculty when folks first began to note her resemblance to Swift, then an up and coming singer.

“We had the identical coiffure and a really related look. I had began listening to Taylor in 2006 when she got here out with [her single] ‘Tim McGraw,’” Leechin stated. “So it was form of a joke going into highschool. It wasn’t bizarre for me, per se. It was enjoyable simply because I like her a lot.”

She stated she downloaded TikTok in 2020 whereas quarantining through the pandemic and issues actually took off from there.

Not that life as a look-alike is all the time the proper love story.

Leechin has gotten some hate from folks on-line who’ve advised her to “cease emulating somebody that you simply’ve by no means met.”

She insists that she has solely optimistic intentions as she has a lot respect for Swift.

“I like her music, so in fact I’m going to emulate her,” Leechin stated.

You learn that proper by the way in which: Leechin has by no means met Swift in individual, although in September Swift hopped into the feedback on a TikTok of Leechin reacting to Swift’s video about her unveiling tune titles from her “Midnights” album.

Swift wrote, “My mother simply noticed this and stated ‘she seems such as you.’”

Cue Leechin freaking out.

Even her children, an 8-year-old son and 7-year-old daughter, are down with their mother being Swift’s doppelgänger.

“They like it,” she stated. “It’s been a protracted street on social media and so they’ve seen my movies. Each time Taylor Swift pops up on a video, like her NYU speech, my son was like, “Mommy, is that you simply within the purple robe?’”

Whereas Leechin may most likely make a mint working as a Swift look-alike, proper now she’s simply having enjoyable.

“I’ve had many alternatives, and, just lately, I’ve turned them down,” she stated. “I do have my very own agent. Nonetheless, I’m not pursuing any gigs at this second simply because it acquired to a degree the place they wished me to nail that look down a lot to carrying blue contacts. I refused to do this.”

One factor she is dedicated to will probably be attending Swift’s upcoming “Eras Tour.” Leechin was one of many fortunate ones who was in a position to snag tickets.

On the face of it, that appears solely proper.