7 Shows Like ‘XO, Kitty’

There’s nothing quite like the thrill of a crush, especially coupled with the heightened emotions of adolescence. Like XO, Kitty, Heartstopper is a high school romance that features many of  the same themes about what happens when you feel like you’ve fallen for two people at the same time, and how to handle the labels and spectrum of sexuality when you’re just learning who you are.

Heartstopper stars Joe Locke, Kit Connor and Sebastian Croft and features a delightful appearance from Olivia Colman (so you know it’s gotta be good), and delivers a sweet romance that will remind you of that raw teenage emotion – the excitement, the heartache, the butterflies – of falling in love.

Where to watch Heartstopper

Mindy Kaling is responsible for two of the shows on this list, the high-school based Never Have I Ever, and The Sex Lives of College Girls, which is obviously set in college. Both shows are huge successes, probably because Kaling knows a thing or two about drawing out those real-life feelings of angst, romance and confusion that plague most of us during those tumultuous years.

In Never Have I Ever, Maitreyi Ramakrishnan plays Devi Vishwakumar, a South Asian-American high schooler who desperately wants to be popular and has a crush on three different people, similar to the emotions that Kitty feels for Dae, Min Ho and Yuri. As she makes her way through high school, Devi has to figure out which of her crushes makes her happiest… or maybe she just needs to learn how to be happy without any of them.

Where to watch Never Have I Ever

Sex Education is raunchy and hilarious and heartbreaking all at once. The series stars Asa Butterfield as Otis, a student at the quaintly British Moordale High School whose mother, played by Gillian Anderson, is a sex therapist. As the show began, Otis and his friend Maeve (Emma Mackey) began an enterprising sex advice business out of the bathroom stalls of their school, based off of what Otis had gleaned from his mother’s work.

As the seasons went on, the interpersonal relationships between Otis and Maeve and their classmates —many of whom struggled to deal with their sexuality, personal trauma, and reputations — became the focal point, as we wonder whether or not Otis and Maeve are meant for one another, and how things are going to play out now that their school is in shambles.

Where to watch Sex Education

The Sex Lives of College Girls is a more mature look at romance, relationships and sex through the lens of four college friends, Kimberly (Pauline Chalamet), Leighton (Renee Rapp), Whitney (Alyah Chanelle Scott) and Bela (Amrit Kaur). Once again, Mindy Kaling captures the nuances of this often confusing stage of life, weaving in themes of sexuality, friendship and how to adjust to what I guess you could call “adulting” into a charming, tender, and funny show.

Where to watch The Sex Lives of College Girls

Though it only lasted one season before it was canceled, Dash & Lily is a charming rom-com set during Christmas in New York. Sure, it’s a far cry form Seoul, but the series retains the same sweet, hopeful romance and charm that XO, Kitty also has. Dash (Austin Abrams) is a young guy who finds a book one day at The Strand book store that’s filled with a series of puzzles and mysteries to solve. Lily (Midori Francis) is the person who created said book, and the show chronicles the way their lives intertwine until eventually they finally meet.

Where To Watch Dash & Lily

While Kitty, Dae, Min Ho and the rest of her friends and potential love interests find romance and soap-opera levels of relationship drama at KISS, their school in Seoul, The Fabulous is another series about life in the Korean city, though this one is set against the backdrop of the fashion industry.

The core characters are a little bit older, so as they navigate the ups and downs of love, they’re also focused on their careers and the slightly more mature problems faced by people in their 20s and 30s as opposed to teens.

Where to watch The Fabulous

Okay, so this one is technically not a series, but this list wouldn’t be complete if we didn’t suggest watching (or re-watching) the trilogy that introduced us to Kitty Song Covey, the meddling younger sister to star Lara Jean Covey (Lana Condor).

Even though To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before and its two sequels, To All The Boys: P.S. I Still Love You and To All The Boys: Always and Forever are feature-length films, they’re all based on the Jenny Han novels that are the basis for this whole To All The Boys Universe that Kitty exists in, and it’s where we first get to know Kitty, who was the scene-stealer and pot-stirrer who sent all of Lara Jean’s private love letters to the boys they were addressed to, but were never meant to be sent. Now that Kitty is growing up, these three films are a great starting point to get to know Kitty and her backstory if you haven’t already.