International Women's Day: Female Science Stars to Follow in 2025

Yahoo

08-03-2025

Female science communicators are taking social media by storm in 2025. These aren't your average content creators, and their numbers aren't average either.
This year, out of the top 50 STEM influencers on FeedSpot's media database, no less than 41 spots went to accounts with women presenters. Across TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram, female science communicators are drawing millions of followers with their wit and wisdom.
You might already know of Emily Calandrelli, Katie Mack, Emily Graslie, Dianna Cowern aka Physics Girl, Ali Ward, or Simone Giertz, but in honor of International Women's Day, it's worth sharing some up-and-coming sci-com stars that might not yet be on your radar.
Of all the women included in FeedSpot's top STEM influencers, second place overall went to Mrs. Nancy Bullard, aka Mrs. B – a charming, laidback science teacher from North Carolina who has amassed around 650,000 followers on Instagram, just over a million followers on YouTube, and 3.4 million on TikTok.
This isn't simply another channel for school science fair experiments, although there are plenty of those, too, from fireworks in a jar to marshmallow catapults and underwater candles.
One of Bea's most viewed videos on TikTok, at 13.4 million, is of her handling real human brains as she explains the process of organ donation. In another viral video, she handles her very own placenta – with blue gloves of course.
Across the pond in the United Kingdom, mathematician Hannah Fry is answering the big questions in science, like, "Are numbers actually real?", "Is it possible to avoid hangovers?", and "What do Barbie and Ken have in common with a fruit fly?"
Fry makes challenging scientific subjects accessible and practical for everyone, even if mathematics was never their strong suit in school.
During an interview several years ago, when Fry was asked why girls should study science and maths, she replied, "You have to realize that being female at the moment is a superpower. Everything is willing you forward, and I think that there has never been a better time to want to get into science, technology, engineering, and mathematics."
As of 2025, Fry is the Professor of the Public Understanding of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge. You can follow her on YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok.
It's been two years since the American forager and vegan cook Alexis Nikole Nelson received the 2022 James Beard Award for Best Social Media Account, and since then, her TikTok account has grown from 3.3 million to 4.4 million followers.
Nelson is not a formally trained scientist, but her passion for finding wild food in the "VERY untamed wilderness of scenic Ohio" is sure to inspire any budding naturalist. Her lessons, like "gathering prickly pears without ruining your life", aim to teach others about the amazing plants they are surrounded by, and to elevate the Black and Indigenous roots of foraging.
From identifying poisonous plants or making dandelion wine or seawater pickles, Nelson's effervescent lessons will have you seeing and tasting your surroundings in a whole new light.
You can follow Nelson's teachings on TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube.
Down under, astrophysicist Kirsten Banks has her followers looking up while they look down at their phones. With a PhD in astrophysics, Banks discusses all things space with her followers, and she brings a unique perspective to her social media.
As a proud Wiradjuri woman, Banks is following in the footsteps of her Aboriginal ancestors – who are known as the 'earliest astronomers'.
"In Australia alone there are more than 250 Indigenous groups that have used the stars for the last 65,000 years, and their knowledge is still exercised to this day," said Banks in a TED Talk from 2020.
Her favorite Aboriginal constellation is known in the Wiradjuri language as Gugurmin, the Celestial Emu, which is outlined in the Milky Way. Its position in the night sky is used to determine the right time to go looking for emu eggs.
You can follow Banks on TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube.
Xyla Foxlin is cool. There's really no more succinct way to describe her. A mechatronics engineer, pilot, rocketeer, woodworker, and 'creator of chaos' with a passion for the arts, Foxlin has a "disdain for the way engineering is taught in schools", and she is determined to inspire others to make things… any things really – whether it be a Christmas tree rocket, or a foam version of yourself.
Foxlin isn't constrained by the idea of usefulness; learning and having fun is more than enough for her.
"My big thing is that femininity and engineering are not mutually exclusive. I'm still the only one in a dress at design reviews or the only one wearing all pink in the shop. We should be teaching our girls that it's OK to like princesses and power tools," she told Cleveland Magazine in 2017.
You can find Foxlin on TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube.
Happy scrolling this International Women's Day!
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