Taylor Swift, the teen country songwriter and singer to overnight pop sensation is featured in Glamour’s November issue. With a new album, Red, in stores October 22nd, a massive tour expected in 2013, and lots of gossip surrounding her romance with Conor Kennedy, Taylor is on to the next phase of her already skyrocketing career. In Glamour’s November issue (available digitally on October 2nd on the iPad, Kindle Fire and Barnes & Noble Nook Color, and on newsstands nationwide on October 9th) she opens up about her goals, her friends, and her latest “love story.” ABC’s Cynthia McFadden interviewed Taylor for Glamour. Cynthia also went behind-the-scenes at the cover shoot in Nashville and at the Glamour offices in NYC with editor in chief Cindi Leive to see how the final cover was chosen.

Courtesy of Glamour, check out what Taylor shared:

On her songs about past relationships and not listening to the gossip…
GLAMOUR: And “Dear John,” also about a failed relationship, still seems to be resonating strongly. Does that surprise you?
Taylor Swift: I think that song really hit home with a lot of girls who had been through toxic relationships and had found their way to the other side of it. I’ve never looked out while singing a song during a concert to see so many girls crying.
GLAMOUR: You never identified who it was about, but John Mayer recently told Rolling Stone that it was him.
TS: How presumptuous! I never disclose who my songs are about.
GLAMOUR: He said he felt…
TS: No! I don’t want to know, I don’t want to know.
GLAMOUR: You don’t? [Mayer told Rolling Stone that he was "humiliated" by the song, and that Swift's releasing it was "a really lousy thing for her to do."]
TS: I know it wasn’t good, so I don’t want to know. I put a high priority on staying happy, and I know what I can’t handle.
GLAMOUR: It would hurt too much to hear?
TS: It’s not that I’m this egomaniac and I don’t want to hear anything negative, because I do keep myself in check. But I’ve never developed that thick a skin. So I just kind of live a life, and I let all the gossip live somewhere else. If you go too far down the rabbit hole of what people think about you, it can change everything about who you are.

On her new relationship and the Kennedys…
GLAMOUR: So there’s a lot of talk about you and the Kennedys these days. There are reports that you are dating Conor Kennedy.
TS: I don’t talk about my personal life in great detail. I write about it in my songs, and I feel like you can share enough about your life in your music to let people know what you’re going through.
GLAMOUR: Ethel Kennedy, Conor’s grandmother, was asked what she would think of having you as a “granddaughter-in-law,” and she said, “We should be so lucky.”
TS: She’s fantastic. I love her.

On the importance of having girlfriends and maturing with celeb-besties Emma Stone and Selena Gomez…
GLAMOUR: I know you have many close girlfriends. Are they helpful in keeping your worries in check?
TS: They are so important in my life right now. I’m the kind of girl who needs to tell her friends everything. I’ve developed this really close-knit group of girls. Two of my close friends are bandmates. My other close friends are Ashley, Claire, Diana, Emma, and Selena.
GLAMOUR: Emma is Emma Stone, and Selena is Selena Gomez. Is it nice to have friends who are also famous?
TS: I met Emma when I was 17, and I met Selena when I was 18. So they’ve experienced all of this with me, and they’ve also experienced their own amazing success, and somehow through all of it, we’ve stayed close.

On being misunderstood and not being dark, twisty or complicated…
GLAMOUR: As a very public figure, how do you think you are misunderstood?
TS: I think some people think it’s just apple pie and sunshine and sprinkles and ponies. Which is just funny. But I never feel the need to go out and make some grand statement that I’m dark and twisty and complicated, because I’m not that either. It’s just not as simple as ponies and rainbows, though I do love ponies and rainbows.

On if she is wary of people using her for her fame and money…
GLAMOUR: Are you wary of people using you for your fame and money?
TS: I think you can tell who’s a good person to be around, who makes you laugh, who’s fun, whom you can trust. And, yes, you’re going to get burned a few times, but I’d really rather get burned a few times than sit alone in that house with the curtains drawn. So God forbid this person you’re hanging out with gets a bit of validation out of the fact you’re famous. Is that the worst-case scenario? You know, it doesn’t seem that bad.

Here is the behind-the-scenes Glamour cover shoot slideshow.

Photos by Ellen von Unwerth, courtesy of Glamour Magazine.