[2] From her teenage years onward, Fisher developed a carefully molded public image, which was enhanced by acknowledgement from Sir Joshua Reynolds and other artists.

By emphasizing Fisher's beauty, audacity, and charm, portraits of her, along with newspaper and magazine articles promoted her reputation, prompting spectators to view her with awe.

Her life exemplifies the emergence of mass media publishing and fame in an era when capitalism, commercialism, global markets, and rising emphasis on public opinion were transforming England.

In one famous incident, on 12 March 1759,[6] Kitty Fisher fell off her horse while riding in St James's Park and exposed herself (as split-leg undergarments did not exist in the time period).

Giustiniana Wynne, visiting London at the time, wrote: Fisher's retort to Lady Coventry shows her intentions to marry a Lord and, thus, ascend social class by means of marriage, in much the same way as Gunning herself.

Fisher's cynical assessment of the gender politics of the day shows an awareness of the constraints on single women with a mind towards greater social mobility, but also serves as a condemnation of the Gunning girls for positioning themselves to marry wealthy, powerful men, merely for their own means and preservation.

However, she died only four months after her marriage, some sources say from the effects of lead-based cosmetics (although this may be a confusion with the fate of her rival Lady Coventry), or possibly from smallpox or consumption (now known as tuberculosis), in 1767.

[19] During her lifetime, numerous books and articles claiming to tell her life story were published, although these were often spurious and make it difficult to separate biographical facts from the myth of Kitty Fisher.