Introducing Our Next Cover Star 🐎

She's been called "Gen Z's Jane Goodall"

Photos by Shua Buhangin

Neighbors,

I’m quite excited to reveal that Twitch streamer, conservationist, and animal educator Maya Higa—the twenty-seven-year-old creator who’s been called “Gen Z’s Jane Goodall”—is our next Creator Mag cover star.

As we finalized this season’s overarching, “Touch Grass” theme, Maya felt like a perfect fit for our cover story. From raising five hundred thousand dollars via Twitch donations to fund her animal sanctuary, Alveus, to educating tens of millions of young viewers across the Internet, the streamer is redefining science communication at a time when it’s under attack.

Issue 7 is available now / Design by Moy Zhong

But something else stuck out during our background interview, which we recorded over Riverside in August. While Maya’s journey is an inspiration in of itself, her learnings from six years on Twitch say a lot for anyone looking to build a life—both online and off.

“Animals in themselves are so grounding,” she told me. “When you show up and you walk into an animal’s enclosure, they have no concept or care for your size as a creator online, right? They keep you present, as the only thing that they care about is how you show up that day.”

Maya feeds Push Pop the Tortoise a hibiscus flower

A month after that background interview, we flew to Austin, Texas and visited Alveus in person. We toured the sanctuary’s various enclosures, meeting their forty-plus animal ambassadors and interviewing staff members Kayla Jackson, Connor O’Brien, and Maya herself. It was a hot, hundred-degree day down south, but we left Alveus feeling energized nonetheless—carrying a newfound excitement to share everything we’d stumbled upon.

Scroll down to read the intro for our cover story, “Maya Higa is Hiding the Broccoli,” which features original photography from Shua and words from yours truly.¹ And when you’re done, grab your copy of Creator Mag: Issue Seven—preorders are now open early for newsletter readers.

— NGL

P.S. Last blog, we chatted parenthood, anonymity, creativity, and, of course, touching grass with Create.Repeat authors Zack & Morgan Evans. You can read it here.

Maya looks out across Alveus from the wolf dog enclosure

“You cannot get through a single day without having an impact on the world around you. What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make.” —Jane Goodall

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An hour past the Austin sprawl, strip malls give way to rolling wilderness, and the roads transform from asphalt to gravel.

When I arrive at the entrance to Alveus Sanctuary, I drive slowly, gazing out the window at familiar surroundings. It’s a smooth ride now, but back in July, the Central Texas floods wiped out this road. For a brief moment, the sanctuary’s forty-plus animal residents were in danger of missing out on critical resources, like meals and medications— never mind the humans who work here every day.

If you’re a regular Twitch viewer, there’s a decent chance you’ve seen this road before, too. Top streamers from around the country began descending on Alveus in July—offering up not only their physical assistance in digging and draining water, but also their collective audiences. At several points across the assembled streams, “over one hundred thousand people were watching live,” Alveus director Maya Higa tells me, as we stand here on the road.

Maya pictured with Winnie the Moo (right) and her pet horse, Ace (left)

There is a level of reverence that folks reserve for talking about Maya. Her peers (other streamers) may enjoy gassing themselves up — for one to go live every day, it’s a feature of the occupation, not a bug — but they all seem to ascribe Maya’s unique strain of chatter to a higher purpose. “She is saving the world,” her friend and former podcast co-host QTCinderella said in July. Scientists and researchers who know her tend to marvel at Maya’s ability to distill convoluted information on conservation and the environment into a substance that even scroll-happy, vertical video viewers can get behind. And upon visiting Alveus, which Maya founded when she was just twenty-one, CBS News came away from Texas with a bold proclamation: They’d found “Gen Z’s Jane Goodall.”

I ask Maya for her thoughts on being compared to one of the world’s most renowned conservationists. “I would never, ever give myself that title,” she responds. “They’re massive shoes to fill.”

“But people use it a lot to describe me now, which is cool,” she follows up.

Appa the Marmoset was anything but camera-shy

That newfound visibility comes with higher expectations, which is why we’re here, in Texas. Because Maya (alongside the animals and humans who call Alveus home) has been hiding in plain sight these past six years, refashioning Twitch—best known for gaming “Let’s Plays” and loud, young men barking—as a tool to, say, share fun facts about insects, and raise some money along the way.

In a moment when research funding has been gutted across the board and attacks on science become ever more normalized, Alveus has built its foundation on an alternative path. Not only as a vehicle for virtual education, but also a platform, to shine a spotlight on the work of researchers around the world—and, in the near future, maybe offer its partners even more.

“When we’re reaching tens of millions [of viewers] a year…that does really matter,” Maya tells me. “We can mobilize so many people, and there’s a lot of hope in that. It’s our job to stay really positive, and to let people know that our planet has a chance—because it does.”

Directors of Operations Connor O'Brien (left) and Animal Care Kayla Jackson (right)

For the purposes of this piece, over the last two months, I spoke with a dozen scientists, researchers, creators, and viewers. There were two questions I set out to answer.

First, are Maya, the Streamer and Maya, the Conservationist poised to meet the current moment?

And second, what’s gained and lost when science is predominantly communicated—and consumed—over social media?

You can read more in Creator Mag: Issue Seven, which is available for preorder now. At ninety-six pages total, it’s our longest, most premium print edition yet.

This issue includes not only original stories, photography, and more from thirteen unique contributors, but it’s also our first “perfect-bound” magazine—meaning it comes with a hardcover, book-esque spine.

We can’t wait to get these in your hands soon enough. And for those attending the Block Party in Los Angeles, see you Wednesday.

Thanks for reading! Shoot us a reply, comment, or DM if anything resonated with you in particular—we respond to them all.

1. Credit to Moy for her design work on both the cover and the magazine spread!