Woman Who Says She Coined Phrase ‘Girlboss Too Close to the Sun’ Speaks Out About Taylor Swift Using Phrase in New Album

Did Taylor Swift girlboss too close to the sun with one of her latest lyrics?

Four years ago, Los-Angeles based comedian-influencer Caroline Timoney dropped what would quickly become a viral TikTok audio. Little did she know, it would also be a bar on the pop superstar’s 12th studio album, The Life of a Showgirl.

To date, there are more than 24,000 videos that use Timoney’s audio from an August 2021 TikTok in which the comedian teases, “Listen, I can’t give any more information, but I fear I may have girlbossed too close to the sun.” Meanwhile, in the pre-chorus to “CANCELLED!” Swift, 35, sings, “Did you girlboss too close to the sun? / Did they catch you having far too much fun?”

So when Timoney woke up on Friday, Oct. 3, and heard Swift sing words quite similar to her “girlboss” spin on the myth of Icarus, the stand-up comedian hopped on the app to make a video about it — and joke about how fame is already getting to her head.

“Hey guys, I wanna make this quick,” she began in the TikTok, which has 1.7 million views. “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.”

The comedian then went on to joke, “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.”

“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,” she jokingly added, before concluding: “But I am genuinely so shocked.”

Timoney did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.

The comedian did not explicitly accuse Swift of copying her, though some individuals in the comments did. In the most-liked comment — which Timoney herself liked — one TikTok user advised her to “get a lawyer and get writing credits.”

The same user also cited Swift’s own songwriting credits on Olivia Rodrigo songs as a reason to seek credit. (Swift and Jack Antonoff were both given writing credits on Rodrigo’s song “1 Step Forward, 3 Steps Back,” which interpolated the melody from their song “New Year’s Day,” from the get-go, and the pair were later credited on “Deja Vu,” as its melody was inspired by the bridge of “Cruel Summer.”)

Another user also urged Timoney to seek credit by referring to Lizzo’s decision to give the creator of the “DNA test” meme featured in her song “Truth Hurts” a songwriting credit on the track.

Meanwhile, Candace Owens seems to think that Swift’s Icarus-inspired “girlboss” line in “CANCELLED!” is a reference to a comment she made about the pop singer.

In a statement to Entertainment Weekly, a spokesperson for the conservative political commentator claimed that the “CANCELLED!” lyric lifted a line from a January 2025 episode of her Candace podcast, “The Taylor Swift Plot Thickens,” in which Owens, 36, discussed Swift’s involvement in Blake Lively’s legal battle with Justin Baldoni. In the episode, Owens claims that the legal battle would “come to be known as the girlbosses who flew too close to the sun.” (Owens did not, however, claim to coin the phrase herself.)

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“I love it,” the political commentator told EW of the “girlboss” line. “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.”

Added Owens: “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.”