Taylor Swift comes to Prudential Center

WHO: Taylor Swift.

WHEN: 7 p.m. Wednesday through Friday.

WHERE: Prudential Center, 165 Mulberry St., Newark; Ticketmaster or prucenter.com.

HOW MUCH: $49.50 to $98.

FOR MORE INFORMATION: taylorswift.com.

What is Taylor Swift going to be when she grows up?

Did we say when? If.

At age 23, the talented, million-selling, seven-Grammy-winning, erstwhile teen queen of pop seems to be undergoing an awkward non-growth spurt.

And it could be a dangerous tipping point for the pop idol appearing Wednesday through Friday at the Prudential Center in Newark in support of her 2012 "Red" album. (She'll return July 13 for a show at MetLife Stadium.)

"Her image has remained very pure and little-girlish and romantic," says Dr. Montana Miller, specialist in youth culture at the Department of Popular Culture, Bowling Green State University in Ohio. "I just think it's surprising that she's trying to keep doing it until she's in her mid-20s."

Surprising and maybe just a little bit dicey.

Swift still appears in prom-like dresses, and sings (repeatedly) about romantic travails and breakups. She kicked off the Grammy Awards telecast in February performing her hit single, "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together," dressed all in white, while accompanied by circus-like dancers dressed as stilt-wal! kers, clowns and even an "Alice"-like white rabbit. (She's used the circus theme in other performances as well.)

And she was rilly, rilly cheesed off at Tina Fey and Amy Poehler, co-hosts of the 2013 Golden Globes, for making a mild crack about her supposed dating excesses. "You know what, Taylor Swift? You stay away from Michael J. Fox's son," Fey quipped on awards night in January. To which Swift responded, not by laughing it off, but by quoting Katie Couric quoting Madeleine Albright: "There's a special place in hell for women who don't help other women."

"I really hate to say this, but it's a necessary evil of living in the spotlight," says Fair Lawn's Alexandra Kelly, 22. "You're going to have people talk about you, who say hurtful things."