Today we’d like to introduce you to Lindsay Nikole.
Hi Lindsay, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Hey! My name’s Lindsay Nikole. I’m a zoologist/science communicator with animal-related videos on TikTok and Instagram.
How did you get into Zoology?
Funny enough, I wasn’t always passionate about zoology. I actually started off as a Criminology major in college. But I had the opportunity to volunteer at a big cat sanctuary in South Africa when I was 18 and it completely changed my life. Because of that, I decided to switch my major to Zoology in order to rescue animals from the illegal wildlife trade. I transferred to Oregon State University, where I then got to intern at the Cheetah Conservation Fund in Namibia as the lead carnivore intern. I was planning to go back to Africa once I graduated, but the pandemic hit, so I couldn’t get a job. After graduating in June 2020 and having all of this incredible information about animals and evolution, I decided to download TikTok to start making videos related to what I learned in college. I found a new passion in teaching and making science accessible and digestible to anyone who wants to learn it.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Definitely not smooth!
Since I transferred to a different school for Zoology, I was pretty isolated. Meeting people as a transfer student was tough, and it took me over a year to find friends I actually clicked with. So it was pretty lonely.
Then, graduating during the pandemic ended up changing my entire career path. I had moved around so much and spent 5 years in school for a specific goal — to work at a big cat sanctuary in southern Africa — and to lose that option indefinitely was tough. Luckily though, I ended up finding an internship at the Wildcat Sanctuary in MN that I could go to in October 2020 — a couple of months after I started creating content. I thought I would be able to balance the two while I was there, but the work days ended up being more draining than I expected them to be. All I wanted to do was teach people about cool animals, but I would go days and weeks without energy to research and make content after work. I ended up hurting my back pretty bad there by overworking myself, and I had to go home to LA early. This meant until my back healed, I wouldn’t be able to do the animal care. Unfortunately, it’s still not 100%, but my experience in Minnesota made me realize how much I love teaching in creative formats and pushed me to invest more time into content creation. And I’m so happy I did that!
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar, what can you tell them about what you do?
I’m a science communicator on social media — focusing on zoology and evolution! I try to spice up the information by presenting it quickly, making skits out of it, and getting creative with formats in order to make the concepts digestible and fun to learn.
What quality or characteristic do you feel is most important to your success?
I would say creativity – in order to keep the content fresh and new – and that originally comes from my music roots. I’ve played guitar since I was eight, and along the way started playing drums, singing, writing music, and started a rock band that I was in for six years. I still make music, and I have always needed that creative outlet. Now, I also use content creation as my creative outlet.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: instagram.com/lindsay_nikole
- Other: tiktok.com/@lindsaynikole
