How Instagram Helped Poet Rupi Kaur Find Her Audience – And Sell 1.4M Books (So Far)

The 24-year-old Canadian poet became famous when Instagram banned a self-portrait in which she was lying on her bed, with sheets stained by menstrual blood. That banning got her 1.3 million followers to the site, where she publishes poetry and illustrations. She credits social media for its openness: “I used to submit to anthologies and magazines when I was a student – but I knew I was never going to be picked up. All their writing was, you know, about the Canadian landscape or something. And my poem is about this woman with her legs spread open.”