VICE Sits Down With the Wildly Successful Rupi Kaur

VICE features 23 year-old Toronto-based poet Rupi Kaur. Neha Chandrachud writes that she's "challenged our standard definition of what it means to become an instant media and literary darling." Kaur has over 400,000 Instagram followers, "a wildly successful book, and virtually no shrewd marketing strategy." "Daily VICE's Aakanksha Tangri sat down with Rupi to discuss her poetry, the creative process, and what happens when a self-admitted introvert enters the unfamiliar landscape of (literary) notoriety."

In October of 2015, Kaur released the second edition of Milk and Honey, her inaugural collection of poetry that was first released in 2014. In its four sections, the book is a fresh departure from the sanitized feminism of Instagram affirmations, tampon commercials, and "because it's 2015" sloganeering. Her work addresses heavy topics like love, sex, trauma, loss, and healing and is imbibed in a written style that is disarmingly simple. With over 200,000 copies sold in North America alone, the enormous success of Milk and Honey is an obvious testament to the growing number of young women—and also men—who are embracing Rupi's message of resilience and self-love.

The young poetess's impact has also been revolutionary in ways that aren't immediately obvious. In early 2015, she successfully challenged Instagram's community guidelines after a photo she posted was initially removed from the platform because it featured a young woman's menstrual stain.

A brief scan of Rupi's Instagram page shows the accessibility of most of her poetry.

Can we please ax "poetess" from the lexicon? Nonetheless: Take in Kaur's talk with Tangri here.