Ashley Leechin

Ashley Leechin was born in 1993 or 1994.[1] She began listening to American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift in 2006, when she released "Tim McGraw".[1] According to Leechin, people first noted the similarities in her and Swift's appearance when she was around 14 years old.[5]

In 2019, Leechin graduated from nursing school and became a registered nurse.[3] She worked as a trauma nurse in Nashville, Tennessee, United States,[6] where she lived for approximately a year in 2020.[7] During the COVID-19 pandemic, she felt exhausted and burnt out, and downloaded TikTok. Her initial videos consisted mostly of relatable content about motherhood. Leechin first went viral as Swift's look-alike after the singer's fans, called Swifties, discovered a video of her doing laundry in 2021.[5] As some viewers noted her likeness to Swift, she created videos inspired by it and using the singer's audios.[3]

In some of her videos posted to social media, Leechin dressed up as Swift visited Target stores, observing how passersby would exclaim, "Oh, my God, it's Taylor", as she passed. Initially, Swift's fans were amused by Leechin's posts, especially after Swift herself commented on one of Leechin's videos, stating that her mother had made a comment about her similarity to Swift. The criticism against Leechin soon began to grow, however; Leechin frequently sported Swift's hairstyle and lip color, and she frequently posted videos in which she alluded to sharing Swift's love of cats and Grey's Anatomy. The criticism from Swift' fans claimed that several aspects of Leechin's life that she has posted on her social media are direct replications of Swift's.[3]

Leechin's family moved to Utah, United States, in 2021.[7] She is married with two children.[1] Leechin also owns a cat similar in appearance to Meredith, one of Swift's three cats.[3]

On August 19, 2023, Leechin's public appearances in Los Angeles in a look typical of Red-era Swift caused a commotional fan mobbing. She first arrived at the Grove at Farmers Market, a shopping area, alongside a few men wearing all black, sunglasses and earpieces, similar to bodyguards, leading to people around believe it is Swift. Hindustan Times reported that she was attempting to prank other shoppers that she was Swift. Leechin was mobbed by fans who wanted to get a selfie with Leechin whom they believed was Swift and began recording videos of her. Leechin was soon escorted out of the shop she was in by the security; videos of all of these events were widely shared on Twitter and TikTok. She then went to Downtown Disney in Anaheim, California, causing further buzz. Several Swifties on social media commented that the person in the videos is Leechin and not Swift. Swifties online criticized Leechin for attempting to deceive them and pretending to be Swift. Leechin explain herself on Instagram that it is not abnormal for celebrities to use "decoys",[8][9] and that her public experience as Swift was "horrific" but is a social experiment.[4]