Instagram Poet Kitty Lever Is Learning to Trust Her Audience

Kitty Lever lives in a universe of her own creation. Via her Instagram alter ego, the content creator, model, and poet has curated a totally singular aesthetic language that seamlessly fuses together things as seemingly disparate as her love of the written word, Gollum, improv comedy, and a background playing D1 sports. In October, Lever will release her first book, Whiskers of a Kitten, featuring years of her handwritten poetry that’s been collaged, painted over, and altered to become its own mixed-media masterpiece. The final product is a book as multi-faceted, layered, and authentic as Kitty herself. In anticipation of the upcoming release, the author teamed up with Interview and Coach to show off all of those different sides of her personality, and give each of them a gorgeous Tabby bag to match.

TUESDAY 4:13 PM JUNE 30, 2026 NEW YORK CITY

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EMILY KIRKPATRICK: You first started posting your poetry to Instagram two years ago, right?

KITTY LEVER: Yeah, I started posting October 2023, almost three years ago. And the book comes out October 27th, which is so full circle.

KIRKPATRICK: What made you first want to start posting?

LEVER: I was writing it privately for years and I would post on my Instagram Stories. I had a little highlight button that was like my diary. It literally says “Digital Diary.” That’s what it was called.

KIRKPATRICK: Cute. But it was just sporadic?

LEVER: Yeah, when I felt like it. I feel like I went through my first existential crisis at 23.

KIRKPATRICK: Classic time for it. [Laughs]

LEVER: It wasn’t until this past summer where I compiled my favorites and created a manuscript. I showed it to a publisher and they gave me a contract, and then they also paired me with an editor, so it’s changed. None of [the poetry] is the same as what it was. I didn’t even really know what an editor was. I thought they just kind of did line edits or something. But wow, the coaching that I got from that experience, and just being a better writer, I’m so grateful.

KIRKPATRICK: What did you learn from them?

LEVER: Mostly “show, don’t tell,” which is the most obvious thing you can learn.

KIRKPATRICK: It’s so hard, though. [Laughs]

LEVER: It’s so hard. It’s like don’t say I miss you. Give me an image of what I miss you feels like. I was a young woman writing this, so some of my editing was in the spirit of her and reaching a younger audience. I felt like being direct was punchy. But my editor is in his 40s, and he’s published dozens of books. So he really became a professional counterpart to my world that I really appreciated. But, yeah, the biggest lesson was, “Show, don’t tell,” and to trust your audience, which is hard for me. Even just putting italics on something, he was like, “Stop doing that.” [Laughs]

KIRKPATRICK: You’re like, “Well, how will they know I’m emphasizing it?”

LEVER: He’s like, “They’ll know.” But those things were really helpful.

KIRKPATRICK: It’s also really interesting, like you said, writing these poems when you’re younger and almost speaking to yourself through time.

LEVER: Yes. I spent January through May doing the edits and reworking them. It was a really hard time because it made me very porous and sensitive. I wasn’t making as much content because I was just really trying to put it all towards this thing. It worked out and I got to the other side of it.

KIRKPATRICK: It’s hard though.

LEVER: Yeah, it was hard. I finished it at like 5:00 AM after staying up all night. Well, also, a really fun note about the book is it’s actually all handwritten.

KIRKPATRICK: Right. I was going to ask about that.

LEVER: So basically, once all the writing was done and my editor was like, “This all looks good. You can start,” I went back and I created a scene for each poem.

KIRKPATRICK: Wow.

LEVER: Which was a little bit hard too because it’s a different creative thing where you’re building something from nothing. Luckily, I had a bunch of my own references. My favorite thing was going to antique stores or vintage markets and finding old papers. It just kind of comes together.

KIRKPATRICK: Totally. I think that’s the nature of collage too. It’s like, “Okay, these belong together. This feels right.” Also, the handwritten text, the collage, the illustrations. It’s not your typical poetry book.

LEVER: No, it’s definitely experimental. My boyfriend actually came out with his own book. It’s called Million Mile Motorcycle.

KIRKPATRICK: Great name.

LEVER: Right? No, he’s the most artist artist I’ve ever met. And when I saw the way that he was scanning his poetry and posting it online, I was like, “Fuck, I love that. I want to do it too.” So he sort of introduced me to a medium that I didn’t even know existed. That just speaks to the essence of his artistry.

KIRKPATRICK: Totally.

LEVER: He definitely inspired a lot of the book’s formatting. This is one of my first relationships, and when I think about love, that’s what it’s supposed to do—bring parts of you to the surface that you otherwise would’ve never met. Let me just scroll through a few pages.

KIRKPATRICK: The scrapbook nature of it feels very intimate.

LEVER: Mm-hmm. Even dandelions, I like dandelions. This was growing on my patio and I just ripped it off and squashed it.

KIRKPATRICK: I love that.

LEVER: I’m really proud of the writing, but it’s also visually stunning.

KIRKPATRICK: Yeah, totally. I love the mixed media of it.

LEVER: Thank you so much. It’s really crazy, I’m really proud. It gave me a sense of credibility that like, oh, I can make things too. It’s not just videos. Even though a lot of people, at least when they regurgitate my own content back to me, say, like, “Oh, you’re creating art. This is so cool. I love your work.” I’d always be like, “Okay, yeah, maybe I am?”

KIRKPATRICK: Especially as a writer, I think you can’t help but appreciate the external validation of, “Oh, I’m a published author, so now I’m legitimate.”

LEVER: 100%. But yeah, I think it’s an art poetry book sort of thing.

KIRKPATRICK: I think it makes sense that it’s cross-medium and cross-genre because I feel like your career is also very cross-medium, cross-genre. You do a bit of this, a bit of that, and it all comes together to be you.

LEVER: I think so too. The writing world, honestly, is sort of scary to me. I’ve been around some Substack writing groups and I’m very intimidated by them. I just remember when Charli XCX came out with a Substack. So many people in the comments were like, “This writing isn’t good. This is trash.” But nobody’s reading it because they think they’re going to learn a new thesis. If anything, people want to see a behind-the-curtain look at what’s in her psyche, even if it’s not MBA graduate-level. Do you know what I mean?

KIRKPATRICK: I do, because I remember reading that essay and I remember people’s response to it. And I actually really enjoyed it because I heard her voice in her work. That’s what I value in a writer, is that I really hear you through it and I understand you as a person through it. So to me, I was like, “She did what you’re supposed to do in a blog.”

LEVER: Right?

KIRKPATRICK: I have no complaints with that.

LEVER: Yes, that’s why Substack, I was posting on it for a while until I realized that I think my audience is [more] just somebody who’s a multidimensional artist or enjoys art.

KIRKPATRICK: That’s what’s also nice about posting it to Instagram is that you can meet those people where they are. It’s integrated into their feed and how they’re living their life.

LEVER: Yeah. I didn’t even realize it at the time, but it also feels like the handwriting is sort of an antithesis to AI. I wanted to make something that felt more personal. It doesn’t feel the same if it was in text.

KIRKPATRICK: It’s almost like a selfie in a way. If people see your handwriting, they’re like, “Well, I know that’s Kitty’s.” It’s unmistakable.

LEVER: Mm-hmm. It’s really interesting too because I thought the smaller bits of writing would get more engagement because people don’t want to read all that. But I found that, even if I post three whole pages in my handwriting, it gets the most engagement on the profile.

KIRKPATRICK: Interesting.

LEVER: I’m like, “Huh, people are interested in this handwritten love letter/card dynamic.”

KIRKPATRICK: Maybe it is just the humanity of it.

LEVER: That’s what I’m thinking.

KIRKPATRICK: Where did the name Whiskers of the Kitten come from?

LEVER: The kitten aspect comes from “Kitty.”

KIRKPATRICK: Sure. I got that far. [Laughs]

LEVER: [Laughs] I was doing research on the name and whiskers are actually able to sense vibrations in the air, even the tiniest ones. I was like, “Oh, that sounds like a sensitive person or someone who feels things deeply.” I didn’t even think this far at the time, but this book is also about girlhood to womanhood, those transitionary points. And I feel like Whiskers of a Kitten speaks to that wisdom. Do you know what I mean?

KIRKPATRICK: I do know what you mean. 

LEVER: So, yeah, it kind of worked out perfectly. When I saw everything come together, I was like, “Holy shit.”

KIRKPATRICK: You just made me think of another random cat fact: the whiskers tell the cat what they can fit into and what they’ll get stuck in. So in a way, it’s providing you with this sense of, “Will I fit in here? Will I be trapped in that?”

LEVER: 100%.

KIRKPATRICK: It’s extrasensory in that way too. When you’re making creative projects, sometimes there are just these weird kismet synchronicity things where you didn’t intend for it to mean all these things, but then it comes to fulfill this larger purpose.

LEVER: Yeah, it’s like a seed.

KIRKPATRICK: As a writer and a content creator, how do you discern which parts of yourself you share online? Or do you not have that barrier?

LEVER: Oh, no, I have that. No shade, no tea, but I don’t think I’ll ever exploit my life for views and clicks. My real name is Katie. Kitty is the online persona—a hyper expression of Kittyland, Kitty World, the world that I love to play in. But it’s also curated. There’re some really private things about my life you wouldn’t see me talking about. But, for example, next month will be a whole year of sobriety for me.

KIRKPATRICK: Awesome. Congrats.

LEVER: Thank you. Obviously, it’s deeply personal, but it feels important to share for all the people that follow me and look up to me, especially with the influence of people always sharing party culture online. [To let people know] it also can be really damaging and destructive.

KIRKPATRICK: Absolutely.

LEVER: And I feel like people don’t talk about it enough. Even if you are destroying your own life, you don’t even realize it because somebody’s in your ear telling you, “Oh, this is what your 20s are for.”

KIRKPATRICK: Totally. And you’re posting all the glamorous photos of it without the downside.

LEVER: Exactly. So those things I’ll share. But for example, I don’t post a lot of vlog content because those are my moments in my life. I still have to enjoy my life. I enjoy creating a character that feels like it’s not separated from me at all, but allows me to be present.

KIRKPATRICK: It’s just a small part of you.

LEVER: Yeah. I actually wrote in my Notes app the other day about how easy it is to exploit your life for views. People love relationship content. If you post with your boyfriend or your girlfriend, you’ll get thousands of views. It’s crazy. Or if you post your kids, you can fucking gain hundreds of thousands of followers. At least for me right now, if I ever have kids, I don’t want to post them. I don’t even want to be a content creator that creates lifestyle-y content. I always want to live in this very whimsical world because that’s how I preserve things that are important.

KIRKPATRICK: I also feel like it robs you, like you said, of those experiences. It becomes content and everything you do becomes performative.

LEVER:  I don’t even really like a behind-the-scenes video vibe any more. When I was making the book, I didn’t take pictures of shit. I was like, nobody needs to see me on my living room floor making all this so that I can prove to people that I was working on it.

KIRKPATRICK: Right. It feels like you have to produce the evidence of your labor or something.

LEVER: Yeah. Fuck.

KIRKPATRICK: It’s like, “No, that’s the book.”

LEVER: I’m happy I made decisions like that. So yeah, I’m definitely protecting some parts of my life. I think early on you see how much you could stand to gain from exploiting little bits. But I feel like it can really damage your ability to make friends or get in to a relationship when after the first date you’re fucking talking about the person you went on a date with.

KIRKPATRICK: It’s just mining your life for what you’ve got to garner attention.

LEVER: Mining is a good word for it. So true.

KIRKPATRICK: But eventually you start mining the wrong thing. I feel like that’s the slippery slope of it. You start losing the balance of what should be private. You just have to feed the machine.

LEVER: No, I actually think it could be a psychosis thing.

KIRKPATRICK: For sure.

LEVER: It could be like, I don’t want to say it’s an addiction thing— 

KIRKPATRICK: But when you’re making money off of it, I feel like it is kind of gambling. You might hit the jackpot off that video, so you have to post it.

LEVER: You’re right. If I associate social media to any kind of addiction, it would be a gambling addiction for sure.

KIRKPATRICK: And it can ruin your life for real.

LEVER: It’s true.

KIRKPATRICK: Speaking of your content, how did you get so good at running and playing soccer in high heels? You have a freakish talent at it.

LEVER: Well, I’m going to be honest, I’m very athletic naturally.

KIRKPATRICK: That I gathered from your Instagram. I was like, “Oh, she’s sporty.”

LEVER: Yeah, I’m sporty! Thank you. I actually played Division I sports in college.

KIRKPATRICK: Damn, okay.

LEVER: I played soccer.

KIRKPATRICK: That explains it. The soccer skills are insane. [Laughs]

LEVER: Thank you. I was doing a brand deal with Jeffrey Campbell and it was my first brand deal ever. They gave me $800 to make some videos. I wanted to come up with a really cool concept. I don’t like testimonial content. I want to give something. So I was like, “Oh, I should play soccer in heels.” That’s where it started. And then it just sort of blew up. Then it pushed into like, “Oh, let me run a mile in heels.” It was hard, but it was also doable.

KIRKPATRICK: You fucked up those shoes though. They were wrecked at the end. [Laughs]

LEVER: I got them fixed. But yeah, that’s where that came from. It’s just combining all my worlds. Sometimes I think about college and how I played soccer at a state school in southeast Missouri, which feels so fucking random and so different from my life now. I’m sure a lot of people that knew me then are like, “What the fuck?”