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.

Contact the host of Book Talk: TikTok and Youth Cultures