Book Talk: TikTok and Youth Cultures

In this book talk, Professor Crystal Abidin will discuss key cases and arguments addressed in her recently published book TikTok and Youth Cultures and how they speak closely to recent social, cultural and policy changes.

Using anthropological methods to produce deep and insightful ethnographies about TikTok and its core users, the book helps readers develop a critical understanding of TikTok’s impact on society, its place in the social media landscape, and its cultural relevance around the world.

The book talk will be followed by scholarly responses from Professor Julian Sefton-Green and a Q&A.

Physical copies of the book are available to be purchased on site.

Professor Crystal Abidin is an anthropologist of vernacular internet cultures, focusing on internet celebrity and social media pop cultures in the Asia Pacific region. In 2025, The Australian named her the top researcher in the country in the field of Communication, and Stanford/Elsevier named her the top 0.13% of scientists worldwide in the subfield of communications and new media.

Crystal's awards include Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia, Pacific Standard 30 Top Thinkers Under 30, WA Young Tall Poppy Science Award, among others. Her newest books are TikTok and Youth Cultures (2025, Emerald Publishing) and Child Influencers: How Children Become Entangled with Social Media Fame (2026, Polity Press).

Crystal is Professor of Internet Studies, Director of the Influencer Ethnography Research Lab, Founder of the TikTok Cultures Research Network, and Associate Investigator at the ARC Centre of Excellence for the Digital Child at Curtin University. Reach her at wishcrys.com.