Actress Anna Cathcart has had the unique experience of growing up on screen. Her acting career began in 2016 when she was just 13 years old, but she truly came of age playing Kitty Song Covey in the To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before trilogy. Now, the “chaos queen” is striking out on her own in the Netflix spin-off series XO, Kitty.

Cathcart recently told Decider over a Zoom call that she feels “very lucky” to have played such a beloved character for this long.

“It’s very, very special to see someone grow up at the same time as I’m growing up, and she’s experiencing new changes while I’m experiencing new changes in my own life, and we have a lot of parallels, for sure, especially during the first season,” she said. And despite Kitty’s meddlesome nature, Cathcart admitted that she will “definitely look to Kitty for inspiration… because she just acts out of love always.”

Cathcart stole every scene in the films as the chaotic teen matchmaker who (kind of) threw her sister under the bus by mailing out the love letters she secretly wrote. Now, the Netflix series gives Kitty her own chance at love as the young Covey sister travels halfway across the world to the Korean Independent School of Seoul, where her long-distance boyfriend is attending school. But she ends up learning much more about herself, including that she’s queer.

The 21-year-old actress complimented how the show handled Kitty’s queer awakening in Season 2. Season 1 ends with her realizing she has developed feelings for her former rival, Yuri Han (Gia Kim), but Season 2 begins on an optimistic note as she takes her new sexuality in stride.

“I think they handled it in such a great way. I think it’s really special to see a character who’s newly queer and who’s coming out very recently, but embracing it with so much curiosity and excitement, and the whole show really treats it as it’s not something that’s scary or negative, and the people in her life embrace it,” she said.

But Yuri and Kitty’s love story does not have the happy ending people were hoping for. Yuri finds herself torn between Kitty and her girlfriend, Juliana, as she struggles with her own feelings, which unfortunately leads to Yuri icing Kitty out. Kitty ultimately turns to an unexpected ally in all of this mess: Min Ho Moon (Sang Heon Lee).

Cathcart admitted to Decider that she has definitely seen the several Mih Ho-Kitty edits that were born from these past two seasons. Knowing Min Ho and Kitty’s dynamic is “most popular” with fans, as she told Decider, it was “very exciting to get back to that dynamic and explore what that means now.”

“I’m really happy that they embedded their their bond throughout the season, and sprinkles it throughout. So every episode we get a little moment with them, which I think is really special,” she said.

According to Cathcart, it was even easier to film those steamy dream sequences this time around.

“It was so fun getting to work with Sang Heon this time because we were so much more comfortable with one another,” she said, adding that it had been “awkward” to film the dream sequences in Season 1. “I was so stressed out, and we were all like, I don’t know how to do this, and I want us to look good, versus this time, we could not keep ourselves together, because we were laughing so hard. And just like, This is so silly and this is so fun, and like I feel so safe and comfortable with you, and that makes such a big difference when you have dynamic like that on screen.”

Min Ho even gets to go toe-to-toe with Peter Kavinsky when Noah Centineo makes a surprise appearance in Episode 6. Cathcart revealed the scene was the very first they shot this season, which meant it came with a lot of nerves.

“I had not been on a set for two years… I just had so much running through my head that I will say that the nerves probably took over,” she said. “But it was so cool to see the two boys of like era of this universe and this era of this universe be in one room was very, very special.”

But Min Ho and Kitty’s friendship hits a rough patch when he begins dating KISS newcomer Stella (Audrey Huynh), who brings a whole new level of drama to the show this season.

“I think Audrey so talented and so perfectly cast, and I’m so excited that the world gets to see her kill it now and watch her stardom,” Cathcart said of her new co-star. “But it was really fun to have a villain because Kitty’s never really had a storyline like that.”

Cathcart explained that seeing Kitty sleuthing and trusting her intuition remains “very true” for her character. “I think that’s a really powerful thing to see, and it shows, once again, that Kitty was right. Stella is not who we think she is, and and I think that little story line is so fun because it also just brings out so much in the Min Ho and Kitty dynamic as well. And it was a really cool way to kind of take it in a different direction,” she said.

Season 2 ends with Kitty making the surprising choice to join Min Ho on his travels that summer. Kitty’s focus is elsewhere the entire season — on her family, on her drama with Yuri, and on trying to thwart Stella’s plans — but it feels right that it ends with Kitty once again wearing her heart on her sleeve.

“I think for Kitty, she’s gotten to really explore the Yuri storyline, and got that out of her system, so to speak, of like, she really got to give everything a chance, and make sure she listened to her heart, and now this is where her heart has led her,” she said of the Season 2 finale. “I think Kitty just can’t even help it. She will follow her heart all the time. And that’s one of the things I love about her the most. And she definitely does do that this season.”

Season 3 will certainly bring many surprises and even more teen drama to Kitty’s life. But is there a chance that Kitty’s big sister Lara Jean (Lana Condor) will be making an appearance, considering Centineo and Janel Parrish both visited Kitty this season?

Cathcart told Decider she’s “not sure at all” about the possibility of Condor appearing on the show. “But obviously I would love it so much, and I think the fans be really excited about it, so fingers crossed, but I truly don’t know anything,” she responded.

“I was really, I mean, I’m so lucky that I had Lana and Janelle And Madeline [Argy],” she said of her former co-stars. “To kind of have is like big siblings since I was 14, which is wild to me, and it definitely made a big impact on me, personally and on me as an actor as well, just to have such strong role models and people that I could look up to and talk to who I know understands it.”

But the young actress maintained that she was “really proud” of her XO, Kitty co-stars after this season.

“There was a lot of challenges with Season 1 versus this time, it felt like, so celebratory entering it and kind of like, hands in, go team like, that was the energy. And I think that’s really special. So I just want to say I’m so proud of my cast, and I I miss them all so much, and I’m so so excited that the fans are finally getting to see everybody’s hard work.”

XO, Kitty Seasons 1 and 2 are now streaming on Netflix.