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Lindsay Nikole’s path in zoology — and internet fame — has been unconventional, to say the least. While you might expect to find zoology and science educators in settings like labs or classrooms, Nikole’s work is most prevalent on social media, where she has more than 5 million followers across TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube.
A lifelong love of lions kicked off Nikole’s career journey. In her senior year of high school, she came across a video of volunteers at a big cat sanctuary in South Africa, and she knew she needed to go. So, she worked and saved until she was able to visit the sanctuary in person. “It was this incredible experience … being able to take care of these carnivores,” Nikole tells Her Campus. “I realized that I wanted to do that for the rest of my life, so I went to school for zoology.”
While studying at Oregon State University, Nikole was exposed to broader horizons. “I ended up interning at the Cheetah Conservation Fund (CCF) in Namibia to get more experience with big cats,” Nikole says. Thanks to CCF, cheetahs are now Nikole’s favorite animal. (No shade to lions, but she even has a tattoo of a cheetah on her right shoulder.) But her love expands to wildlife of all kinds. “While I was working [at CCF], I just got so interested in the wildlife in the area,” Nikole says. “Seeing animals I had never even heard of on a daily basis was so cool and made me want to learn about animal diversity in general — weird invertebrate species, prehistoric species, and all that — it catapulted me into being super curious about life on our planet.”
When Nikole graduated, she anticipated working in a big cat sanctuary once more. Unfortunately, she graduated in 2020, when the world was shut down. “Pretty much all animal care jobs were frozen,” Nikole says. “I couldn’t apply anywhere because they just couldn’t hire new people, and so, once I finished my schoolwork, I had all this new information about all these new animals I had learned about, and I had nowhere to put it.”
A friend of Nikole’s suggested she start making TikToks. So, Nikole committed to making at least one video every day at the start of her online career. She enjoyed the TikTok process because it allowed her to continue researching new animals that interested her — and gradually, Nikole realized other people enjoyed her videos, too.
“I remember the first video that did really well, it was a video I made about tiny cat species,” Nikole says. “One thing that I learned while working with big cats was about the illegal pet trade, and cats are just so involved in that, unfortunately.” At the end of her video, Nikole reminded viewers that the tiny cats were not pets. But because the disclaimer was at the end of the video, Nikole noticed many comments on the video asking: Where do I get one? The video got close to 500,000 views, but Nikole deleted it to prevent potential adverse outcomes for the animals.
Nikole found that first brush with virality “cool,” but it was also an important reminder of just how powerful the internet can be. As Nikole has progressed in her online career, she’s learned how to be an accurate, scientific, and engaging creator while keeping education and information at the forefront of her platform.
Even as Nikole’s platform has expanded, she continues to keep curiosity at the center of her content. Her videos are a way for Nikole to explore her own interests, along with those of her followers. “I am definitely driven to keep making content because it’s having an impact on people,” Nikole says. “I’m really, really grateful that I can do that.”
Nikole hopes that with her next project — a book two years in the making — Epic Earth: A Wild Ride Through The History Of Life On Our Planet (out Nov. 11), she will inspire people to not only understand the world, but their place within it.
Epic Earth ($20)
“When I was 19, I had a really hard time with existential anxiety and knowing where I fit in the universe was really hard. I actually found that once I started learning about evolution in college it kind of calmed down that anxiety,” Nikole says. “And so writing this book about how life has evolved over millions and millions of years feels like a full-circle moment. I hope that it can maybe have that impact on somebody who’s struggling as well.”