Abigail Harrison, who operates under the online persona “Astronaut Abby,” has already amassed an impressive following. \Harrison’s niche celebrity, though, wasn’t her original intention. It all started with an eighth-grade project she was doing about the ISS.
“My mom helped me set up Twitter to get in touch with NASA employees for quotes,” she says. “So I started sharing pictures of projects I was working on and writing about my dreams.”
NASA and other influencers in the space community took notice and helped fill her plate with projects. Harrison now travels around the country promoting space and STEM careers in schools. She’s introducing a pen-pal program in which she’ll send readers personal emails about her experiences. This August, she will speak at a convention for the Mars Society about her No. 1 love: the importance of putting a human on the Red Planet.