[7] While Leav is known for being a writer, she initially established a cult fashion label Akina which earned her a Qantas Spirit of Youth Award.

Bustle wrote, “Sad Girls will have you reaching for the tissues; this YA debut is incredibly powerful.”[14] The New Straits Times and The Star (Malaysia) criticized the novel for its lack of depth and character development.

'[18] Readings stated, “The writing is not as lyrical as one would have hoped from a poet, but the characters are well defined.”[19] Leav's college degree equipped her with the technical skills to illustrate several of her books, including Love & Misadventure, Lullabies, Memories and The Universe of Us.

[22] In 2019, Penguin Random House secured the audio rights to Leav’s novel Poemsia in addition to her poetry titles, including The Universe of Us, Sea of Strangers and Love Looks Pretty on You.

Leav’s debut in literary fiction, Others Were Emeralds, was sold to Harper Perennial in a pre-empt, and international rights were secured at auction by Penguin Random House, Australia.

Maryanne Moll, an award-winning Filipino fictionist and a literary criticism student, said Lang’s poems are her way of exercising the trauma she inherited from her mother.

[1] In an interview with Marc Fennel from SBS, Leav explains how her style of writing stems from being a natural translator for her immigrant parents.

“Language had to be distilled as things can get lost in translation.”[29] Leav is occasionally attributed to the Instapoetry movement,[30] which has been panned by the literary establishment as being derivative.