"Am I her Shakespeare?": Woman behind “girlboss too close to the sun” reacts to Taylor Swift’s new album

Taylor Swift may have just turned a viral meme into a lyrical minefield, and the internet's wondering if she girlbossed a little too close to the sun.

On Saturday, Oct. 4, TikTok user Caroline Timoney, who claimed to be the original creator of the "girlboss" phrase, spoke out on the platform. The line quickly gained popularity in 2021, and as of writing, it has now over 24,000 videos using it as a TikTok audio, which says:

"Listen, I can’t give any more information, but I fear I may have girlbossed too close to the sun."

What Caroline Timoney didn't expect was hearing the same phrase from a track off Taylor Swift's new album, The Life of a Showgirl. In "CANCELLED!," the pop star sings:

“Did you girlboss too close to the sun? / Did they catch you having far too much fun?"

Following Taylor Swift's album release on Oct. 3, the TikTok user-comedian took to her account and spoke:

“Hey guys, I wanna make this quick. I woke up this morning to discover that my TikTok audio that I made as a sophomore in college, ‘I girlbossed too close to the sun,’ you know, is in a Taylor Swift song.”

Still, Timoney didn't accuse Swift of copyright infringement, adding that she is a fan of the pop star herself. She also shared with People that it's "utterly shocking" to see the phrase appear on Swift's new album.

"It was so cool that one of the first jokes I wrote when I was starting out comedy as a sophomore in college took on such a life of its own!"

The TikToker seemed not to mind who did it first as she incorporated humor in the situation. Before concluding her video, she quipped:

“You know, am I her Shakespeare? Yeah. Do I see us as, you know, kind of co-writers, as fellow songwriters? … Yeah, all of it, all of the above. But I haven’t changed.”

She added:

“I’ve forgotten a few, you know, names of friends and family, ‘cause I’m blowing up, so you know, this kind of thing happens. But I am genuinely so shocked.”

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Is Candace Owens the real origin of Taylor Swift's "girlboss" lyric?

While Caroline Timoney might have defended her thesis, Candace Owens believes that the "girlboss" phrase refers to her previous comment about Taylor Swift.

According to the political commentator's representative, the line is a connection to a Candace podcast episode, “The Taylor Swift Plot Thickens,” where Candace Owens chewed over Swift getting entangled in Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni's legal drama.

In the January 2025 episode, the activist spoke that the legal feud would "come to be known as the girlbosses who flew too close to the sun.”

In the rep's statement to Entertainment Weekly, Owens said of the "girlboss" phrase:

“I love it. We have a small team, and we spent a great deal of time dedicated to that story, so we are celebrating the fact that Taylor Swift acknowledged it with her signature style of allusion."

She continued:

“It's particularly amusing that I said the entire legal saga would one day be remembered as the story of someone who 'girl-bossed too close to the sun,' and now, thanks to Taylor's lyrical mastery, that day is today."