The 21st century girl doesn’t pertain to any stereotype. She’s a chick of many talents, one moment she’s in Europe, the next she’s in Asia. She’s working on several artistic projects at once and killing at every single one. She’s a mix of races – picking up different cultures as she travels. She’s the mysterious girl at the party you want to know her life story who everyone has their eyes on. Here we have sat down and chatted for you.

Audrey Kitching grew up in Philadelphia, but moved to Los Angeles when she was twenty years old with just $1,000 in her wallet and two suitcases. She knew she wanted to work in the fashion industry, in some form or another. She started blogging on sites like Xanga and MySpace, doing style editing and blogging for Buzznet, which sent her cover and represent the company at red carpet events in Hollywood. She didnt feel like she fit in but people started to take notice of her colorful, crazy style. At the time she didn’t have money so she would buy cheap clothes at thrift shops and go to craft stores and create my own outfits inspired by the runway looks.”

That’s not to say the attention was always comfortable, though, the blogger-model-designer admits. Since then she has become internet famous as a fashion designer, blogger (her Buzznet blog receives 3 million page views monthly) and model. Kitching has been declared simultaneously a “fashion forward female” and “fashion disaster” by Cosmopolitan, an “It Kid” and “princess of pop culture” by Nylon, and “social media queen” by Greek magazine Soul. She has created two clothing lines: Audrey Kitching Los Angeles (formerly Tokyolux) and Coco de Coeur and in 2013 started working on her Crystal Cactus line a line of new age crystal pendant jewelry, holistic spa treatments, and gifts.  Audrey was featured in the Diesel Twitter Campaign in 2015,  Vogue Italia, Elle Magazine, Vera Wang collection and MTV Canada to name a few.

Photographer: Lauren Engel

Styling: Sarah Glenn

HMUA: Norlyn Fairy Angel

Why is a white tiger with wings your spirit animal?
I love that you know this! I’m not even sure I ever mentioned it before publicly. I’m not sure to be completely honest. I trained with shamans early on and it was this mystical creature that always came to me in vision quests. I was the only one whose spirit animal wasn’t earth-bound, which explains a lot. His name is Giles, or I assume that’s what it would translate to in the English language.

Where do you see Crystal Cactus in 5 years?
What we are now but on a much broader scale. We just went through a big phoenix rebirth phase and are rebuilding from the ground up. The company grew so fast and I didn’t really have proper business training to handle that; I was traveling all over the world and there was a lot of money just being thrown around, and I wasn’t really “present.” I made the decision to stop taking traveling jobs for a few months, hired some new staff, and we have been restructuring and upgrading in all aspects. Now we are currently filling orders for Urban Outfitters and the Nylon Shop, as well as working on our higher-end, luxury collection due out later this year. I am very excited about how I envision the store going and will not stop until it reaches that special place.

Do you have other upcoming personal projects you plan to work on?
I have so many going on that I had to make a three year plan to space them out. The last one I recently added on was a cat painting gallery exhibit. I will just leave it at that.

Was it difficult moving social presence from e.g. myspace to the next social media channel as myspace became less and less used?
I would like to say yes, but at the time I was really just a kid running away from myself and trying to figure out where I was going to sleep the next night. I really had no grasp of reality back then, a career was the last thing on my mind. I would get dressed in a Waffle House bathroom after sleeping in a car and then be chased down by girls wanting to take photos with me later that afternoon. It was all a very strange and confusing time… I think it all panned out the way it was supposed to as everything in life does. The only thing that is constant is change. As long as you can be comfortable with that you can flow into whatever is next effortlessly.

If you had $10,000 to spend on clothes, what would you spend it on?
I would raid Opening Ceremony and Saks Fifth Ave and try to stretch it as far as possible. Then naturally save some to hit up thrift stores and take my finds to get custom fitted. I’m a sucker for one-of-a-kind, unique anything. I like to mix designer runway with cheap and forgotten. I cherish the palace and the ruins.

“Don’t become a doll for the public, and just be yourself. The people who are one hit wonders and who fade out as fast as they came in are people who are trying to put on a show, trying to prove something.”

Does it frighten you that with social media you can be relevant one day and not the next?
I don’t ever really think about that at all, which is strange because most people in my situation would. I have had an online presence for over 10 years and I would be doing what I am today as far as energetic work, design, and art with or without a strong following. I would still get dressed as I do today, even if no one ever looked at me again. I think the key to having a real relevance in anything is to not feed into all the trends. Don’t become a doll for the public, and just be yourself. The people who are one hit wonders and who fade out as fast as they came in are people who are trying to put on a show, trying to prove something. It always backfires. I’m just being myself but publicly. Other people on similar journeys will gravitate towards what I’m doing and stick around because it’s relatable in a truth serum way.

What would you say is your biggest achievement to date?
Having people use my images to catfish online.

Do you think the type of fans you have changed over time?
Totally and not at all. I have so many people who have been following me since I was an angry teenager getting kicked out of high-school… which still blows my mind. It’s also safe to say a lot of my followers have also fallen off. There is a huge part of the human race who just does not accept change and evolution. You can not speak to me and treat me as the same Audrey I was 10 years ago and expect it to go anywhere. On the uphill of that statement I also feel a lot of new people find me everyday and are drawn to me for reasons they don’t really understand yet. I would rather have 10,000 people who understand me and want to be a part of what I’m creating than 100,000 who want to judge and pick me apart when I don’t match their idea of who they think I should be.