diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 928131c..e1942e5 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -14,6 +14,8 @@ import { Map } from 'react-leaflet';
 import ReactLeafletKml from 'react-leaflet-kml';
 
 const kmlText='YOUR KML FILE AS TEXT';
+const parser = new DOMParser();
+const kml = parser.parseFromString(kmlText, 'text/xml');
 
 export class App extends React.Component { 
   render() {    
@@ -22,7 +24,7 @@ export class App extends React.Component {
         <TileLayer url="https://{s}.tile.openstreetmap.org/{z}/{x}/{y}.png"
           attribution="&copy; <a href=&quot;http://osm.org/copyright&quot;>OpenStreetMap</a> contributors"
         />
-        <ReactLeafletKml kml={kmlText} />
+        <ReactLeafletKml kml={kml} />
       </Map>
     );
   }
diff --git a/package.json b/package.json
index 17bdd83..b5fe494 100644
--- a/package.json
+++ b/package.json
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 {
   "name": "react-leaflet-kml",
-  "version": "1.0.2",
+  "version": "1.0.3",
   "description": "React leaflet wrapper of leaflet-kml",
   "main": "lib/index.js",
   "types": "lib/index.d.ts",
diff --git a/src/__tests__/ReactLeafletKml.test.tsx b/src/__tests__/ReactLeafletKml.test.tsx
index 238d9ac..19e8ea2 100644
--- a/src/__tests__/ReactLeafletKml.test.tsx
+++ b/src/__tests__/ReactLeafletKml.test.tsx
@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@ test('ReactLeafletKml', () => {
 
   const component = ReactTestUtils.renderIntoDocument(
     <Map>
-      <ReactLeafletKml kml='' />
+      <ReactLeafletKml kml={new Document()}/>
     </Map>
   ) as any;
   expect(component.leafletElement._container).toBeDefined()  
diff --git a/src/index.ts b/src/index.ts
index 0ca7054..7436e19 100644
--- a/src/index.ts
+++ b/src/index.ts
@@ -5,13 +5,13 @@ import { ContextProps, MapLayer, withLeaflet } from 'react-leaflet';
 import 'leaflet-kml';
 
 interface IProps extends ContextProps {
-  kml: string;
+  kml: XMLDocument;
 }
 
 class ReactLeafletKml extends MapLayer<IProps> {
   public createLeafletElement(props: IProps) {
     const { kml } = props;
-    this.leafletElement = new L.KML(new DOMParser().parseFromString(kml, "text/xml"));    
+    this.leafletElement = new L.KML(kml);    
     if (this.props.leaflet.map.options.preferCanvas) {
       setTimeout((map: LeafletContext.map) => {        
           // Handling react-leaflet bug of canvas renderer not updating