Taylor Swift reveals her 'coping mechanism' for dealing with critics and admits she likes to 'mock them back'

Taylor Swift revealed she likes to 'mock' her critics as she discussed dealing with her 'unmanageably big' level of fame, nearly two months after her lavish wedding to Travis Kelce. 

The superstar, 36, looked back on her career in a retrospective conversation for The Icon Sessions on Monday, presented by the Recording Academy's Songwriters & Composers Wing. 

During the interview, which took place on August 18, Swift opened up about refusing to let negative public perception stifle her creative process. 

'Sometimes it fuels it. Like sometimes when people are mocking me, it's really fun to mock them back,' the star, who wore a chic mint dress, said.

'Sometimes I like to just use words that they have to look up in order to talk s**t about,' the Grammy winner quipped. 

'But I go through several processes and coping mechanisms that I've gone through over the years. And one of them is saying, "You chose this. You chose this every day. You could have opted out of this any day before it got unmanageably big."'

'And I decided not to because I love it that much. And that's just where it begins and where it ends. And everything that comes with this ultimately is worth it as long as I get to still make music,' she went on.

Swift also told Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason Jr the common criticism fans aim at her.

'It's like, anything you say, they're like, "Oh, easy for you to say,"' she said in an exaggerated tone.

Elsewhere in the interview she said: 'I realized that I'm making music because I'm playing for the fans. I'm putting this out for people who care about it and who look to music as a way to cope with their life in the way that I did.'

'And I think that if you can actually go through all those checkpoints and realize that putting out music you've made that you love so much is not the path to universal validation... if you're still doing it, then you love it for the right reasons. That's serious.'

Swift also thrilled fans with a surprise mashup performance during the Icon sessions. 

She performed her Toy Story 5 hit, I Knew It, I Knew You, as well as August and All Too Well from her albums Folklore and Red. 

'I never turned to music to forget my human experience,' Swift shared.

'I turned to music to remember it. And so in songwriting, I find myself drawn to consequences, stakes, and the passage of time so we can see those decisions through.'

During her interview and performance Swift also flashed her wedding band and her massive engagement ring from Kelce. 

Her husband recently opened up about married life about a week after friends of the newlyweds revealed Swift was experiencing 'bliss' as Mrs Kelce and 'waking up together' in their marital home.

He said their wedding was 'crazy' and described their ceremony as the 'best night of [his] life.'

'That's about all I really got from that night,' he said at Kansas City Chiefs training camp ahead of their first preseason game against the Los Angeles Rams on Saturday.

'It was a crazy night. It was full of a lot of celebration. But it's football, baby.'