Kate King, eVal, a Random Swede and the Pleasure of an Ordinary Life

There is something strangely difficult to explain about Kate King. On paper, there is very little about her that should make her an internet phenomenon. She is 27 years old, lives in Aylesbury with her parents, spends a considerable amount of time with people older than herself, has worked relatively little, has never had the conventional dating life that tends to form the backbone of contemporary social media and has built much of her online presence around things as thrilling as the weekly food shop. She is not particularly interested in performing the version of 27 that the internet has taught us to expect. There are no endless nights out, career announcements, couples holidays, gym transformations or carefully constructed declarations of having “figured it all out.” There is Costa. There is bowls. There is radio. There is her mum, Val. There is Mick. There are grocery hauls and meal plans and an extraordinary amount of conversation about what is happening next. And somehow, millions of people have found this completely captivating.