XO, Kitty

Plot Summary 

Kitty Song-Covey, sister of Lara Jean Song-Covey from To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before, applies for a scholarship to a school in Korea. While she primarily applies to the Korean Independent School of Seoul (KISS) to be with her long-distance boyfriend, Dae, she also wants the chance to attend her late mother’s alma mater to get closer to her. Moving internationally for high school is not as easy as Kitty assumed, however, and her life gets complicated quickly as she thrusts herself into the intricate web of relationships, intrigue, and drama at KISS. Following the tropes and style of K-Dramas, the drama goes beyond the teens into the adults and even into the wider world, but stays firmly grounded in the relationships between the main characters. 

Critical Evaluation

XO, Kitty portrays an unapologetic teen girl who isn’t afraid of being seen as loud, intense, cheesy, or ignorant. From the moment she is on screen, Kitty fully embraces and loves herself, not looking to others to validate her emotions or choices. While this headstrong nature is seen as a positive quality, it is also what gets her into many of the situations that complicate the plot of the show. As this show is an homage to K-Drama, the relationships between the characters is the driving force for each episode. For this to work as well as it does in XO, Kitty, the characters have to be unique with identifiable motivations and emotions, just as Kitty is known for her brash but caring personality. With the amount of miscommunication and secrets that prolong plot lines, the characters also have to be likable, and even the characters that are meant to be antagonists, like Yuri and Min-ho, have complex motivations and histories that make the viewer sympathize with them. 

Along with plot points resulting from miscommunication, family loyalty, and relationship drama, XO, Kitty reflects its K-Drama inspirations through the long and drawn-out glamor takes of the love interests. While they may come across as cliche, these moments really show the dramatic nature of teens without shaming or disrespecting them. Even the adults in the show have intimate moments where touches linger for an unnatural amount of time or a look is emphasized through a closeup. The teens in the show are not treated as a separate or lesser group but instead are represented as individuals who experience emotion more intensely and more honestly than the adults around them. XO, Kitty caters specifically to teens in a way that treats their experiences with respect and honesty, and it is all done through the interactions between the characters and how they are framed. 

Creative Use for a Library Program

The premise of XO, Kitty, begins with Kitty wanting to go to school in Korea to be with her long-distance boyfriend and pen pal. It may be fun to use this story as an opportunity to start a pen-pal program, preferably with teens who want to learn or practice a non-English language. Having this type of program would encourage cultural exchange and provide a learning experience while still being enjoyable. I would make sure to include fun stationery and for them to format the letters as they wish. There are also many online pen-pal programs now, so beginning a program might mean the teens need to use their personal devices or library-provided technology. The most difficult part of this program would be finding a pen-pal program that is best to work with, particularly if the teens want to write to people in different countries or who speak a variety of languages. 

Book Talk

XO, Kitty: an American Queer K-Drama. 

Potential Challenge Issues and Defense Preparation

There are two areas where I can imagine this show being challenged the most: the inclusion of queer characters and the depiction of underage drinking and talk about sex. To defend the representation of queer identities, I would argue about the importance of representation in building empathy for others. There are queer people who live in the world, whether the challengers would like to admit it or not, and teens deserve to know about them as much as anyone else. I would also defend the teens’ right to choose their own media. If they want to watch a show with queer characters, they should be able to. 

For the mentions of sex and the portrayal of underage drinking, I will defend this by explaining that the show never shows anything beyond kissing between the teens. Teens are discussing sex, drugs, alcohol, and violence in their daily lives, and XO, Kitty, at least provide a positive example of healthy relationships. The show also doesn’t portray underage drinking in a good light but instead exhibits the negative consequences that can follow it, from interpersonal relationships to parental reprimanding. 

Reasons for Inclusion

I included this series because I’ve heard of To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before and knew it was popular as both a book and a movie series. Someone also described XO, Kitty as an American K-Drama. As someone who has enjoyed K-Dramas but hasn’t had time to watch any recently, this was the perfect show for me to watch. The fact that there were not only queer characters but queer themes in the story was quite an unexpected, but very welcome, surprise. This show does a great job of portraying teens, what they desire, and how they think without being patronizing or completely sterile. While still appropriate for younger teens, it touches on many of the experiences that older teens face such as self-realization, gaining independence, and struggling to find their place between school, family, and friends. 

References:

Amazon. (n.d.a). The Summer I Turned Pretty [Image].  https://www.amazon.com/Summer-I-Turned-Pretty/dp/1416968296/ 

Amazon. (n.d.b). To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before (1) [Image]. https://www.amazon.com/All-Boys-Ive-Loved-Before/dp/1442426705 

BuzzFeed Celeb. (2023, May 23). The cast of “XO, Kitty” find out which “Jenny Han Universe” characters they really are. [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=35Zn7Z8Zygg 

Common Sense Media. (n.d.) Parents’ guide to XO, Kitty. https://www.commonsensemedia.org/tv-reviews/xo-kitty 

IMDb. (2023). XO, Kitty (2023) [Image]. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt14490706/

Rotten Tomatoes TV. (2023, April 25). XO, Kitty season 1 trailer [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mw-HaoCQe9U 

Toler, L. J. (2024). XO, Jenny Han. Carolina Arts & Sciences Spring 2024. https://magazine.college.unc.edu/tar-heels-up-close/jenny-han/