Video-sharing platform TikTok blew up after its relaunch in 2018. Since then, the app has amassed over one billion users and produced social media stars like Charli D’Amelio and Addison Rae.
The app also promotes microcelebrities — people famous within a niche group of users on a social media platform — with its algorithm. Below are three women, each popular within their own communities on TikTok, to follow and support.
Alexis Nikole
As a Black forager, Alexis Nikole lives off the land. Her videos show her collecting bundles of onion grass, handfuls or persimmon tomatoes, bowls of hazelnuts and more. Nikole has over two million followers and hopes to encourage the general population to try their own hand at foraging. But, Nikole’s foraging is deeper than that. For her, it’s a way to connect with her African culture and to honor traditional Indigenous food.
Nikole talked to NPR about how enslaved people and Indigenous communities traded knowledge about the land, especially in the Southern United States. Fishing and foraging used to be a large part of Black culture in the Americas.
“After Black people were emancipated, suddenly laws were put in place very rapidly about only being able to reap the benefits of land that you owned,” Nikole told NPR. “And if you are newly freed, odds are you do not own land. So if you can’t hunt and forage on public property, and you don’t yet have private property to your name, boom, that is a part of your life that you are not partaking in anymore.”
Nikole uses her platform to educate her audience about the highs and lows of American history. She focuses on Black culture and strives to reconnect with her ancestry.
Madeline Pendleton
CEO, podcast host and worker’s rights activist Madeline Pendleton uses her platform to promote her clothing brand and educate her audience about different political views. Pendleton talks about punk culture, the climate crisis and shares crazy stories from her day-to-day life. Her ethical approach to shopping and niche subculture of 2000s punk allows her to tap into a specific group of Gen Z’ers who fall into the green square on the political compass.
Her brand, Tunnel Vision, sets itself apart from the competition by practicing socialism on a small scale. Pendleton and her workers have the same salary, same days off and use a communal money pool to draw from when it’s time for bonuses. Needless to say, Pendleton is a pioneer for leftist women and someone entrepreneurs should learn about.
Nikki Burdine
Nikki Burdine works as a television news anchor for Good Morning Nashville. She lives with Tourette syndrome and just gave birth to a micro-preemie baby. Burdine publicly speaks about both struggles and shares the consequences and fears that come with them. Burdine’s life is complicated, but she has a successful career. She just published a children’s book, “Live Like Grunt,” with her father. Her Instagram is full of her and her daughter reading together, and Burdine has spoken about how she hopes young kids can learn life lessons from the loveable book character dog, Grunt.
After walking the Country Music Awards red carpet as a journalist, Burdine went back to her regular anchoring and mom routine. She keeps her life rather public and frequently answers questions from commenters about her unique life circumstances.
Each of these women brings awareness to their own corner of the internet and relentlessly educates their audiences on important topics. Women can support women in person or online, and following these women is a step in the right direction.