Taylor Swift’s self-titled debut album often appears at the bottom of rankings and as the target of harsh criticism that compares the record to those that followed it. While I agree that the album Taylor Swift, or as I’ll refer to it here, Debut, might not equate to Swift’s more recent work, it has its own merit as the album that launched her career into the phenomenon it is today.

As I sat down to listen again to the album that made me a lifelong fan of Taylor Swift, what struck me most was the vulnerability in her vocals and lyrics. Swift has everything to prove with this record, and she does not hold back, establishing immediately her validity as a country singer despite being a 16-year-old girl from Pennsylvania who had only moved to Nashville a few years before. In the opening track, “Tim McGraw,” she makes a bold demand in a fake but convincing country accent, asking her listeners to associate her with the country legend and namesake of the song. She details her starry blue eyes and her faded blue jeans, then continues to shed light onto who she is with the songs that follow.

Throughout this album, Swift features several facets of her character through different songs, displaying vengeance and pettiness in “Picture to Burn” and “Should’ve Said No” and assuming the role of the scorned girlfriend. In “Teardrops on My Guitar” and “Invisible,” she depicts heartbreak as a result of unrequited love, and she’s unapologetically joyful in songs like “Our Song” and “I’m Only Me When I’m With You.” While these tracks are the most acclaimed on the album and can certainly be considered relatable, I don’t believe they’re the reason why so many people found comfort in Swift’s music with Debut.

It’s songs like “Mary’s Song,” which depicts a romance that lasts a lifetime and growing old together that truly captures the hearts of the audience, and “Cold As You,” which recounts how someone “put up walls” around her just to “paint them all a shade of gray.” Perhaps one of her most mature songs ever, “Stay Beautiful” requests that the subject continues to be the version of himself that Swift loves even if she can’t have him. “Tied Together With a Smile” and “The Outside” appeal to those who hide behind strength or perfectionism with the hope that someone will truly see them, and Taylor Swift does just that.

In “A Place in This World,” Swift uses the lyric that I think summarizes the record and brings us back to that idea of vulnerability: “I’m wearing my heart on my sleeve / Feeling lucky today, got the sunshine / Could you tell me what more do I need?”

Swift exemplifies the complexity of the average girl going through self-discovery that is typically undermined, and she does it proudly in front of the whole world. Every girl can see her own diary in Taylor Swift’s debut album; what makes it special is that Swift published hers.