First, in a video posted to Instagram on Oct. 3, 2022, Taylor hinted at "Anti-Hero's" meaning. She says the track is "one of my favorite songs I've ever written," and it was inspired by her "insecurities" and feelings of self-hatred.

Taylor says, "I really don't think I've delved this far into my insecurities in this detail before," she said in the clip. "You know, I struggle a lot with the idea that my life has become unmanageably sized, and that I, you know … not to sound too dark, but, like, I struggle with the idea of not feeling like a person."

She continues, "This song is a real guided tour throughout all the things that I tend to hate about myself. We all hate things about ourselves, and it's all of those aspects of the things we dislike and like about ourselves that we have to come to terms with if we're going to be this person. So, yeah, I like 'Anti-Hero' a lot because I think it's really honest."

Now that "Midnights" is here, here's what the lyrics reveal. In the song, she sings about grappling with depression and the urge to be antisocial, singing, "I have this thing where I get older, but just never wiser / Midnights become my afternoons / When my depression works the graveyard shift, all of the people / I've ghosted stand there in the room."

She also admits to self-sabotage and wondering if everyone she loves will one day leave her for her flaws, wondering, "One day, I'll watch as you're leaving / 'Cause you got tired of my scheming (For the last time)." However, things really ramp up in the chorus, where Taylor admits to feeling like she's always "the problem" and how exhausted she is struggling against negative self-worth.

Taylor sings, "It's me, hi / I'm the problem, it's me / At tea time, everybody agrees / I'll stare directly at the sun, but never in the mirror / It must be exhausting always rooting for the anti-hero."