Skip to main content
All speakers

Kaelyn Apple

TubeFest 2026

Kaelyn is a Ph.D. Candidate at Yale University who began sharing her experiences as a non-traditional academic online in 2019. In addition to sharing weekly vlogs and informative content intended to inform non-traditional students on how best to navigate academia and independent research, she has formed an online community called Accepted Society which contains a recurring membership of over 800 students worldwide. With the ethos that education should be accessible to all, she intends to offer trainings and resources for academic educators and students on how to build online brands and communities.

Sessions

  • Growing Community On and Off Socials: Beyond Vanity Metrics to Life-Altering Connections

    In a digital landscape obsessed with follower counts and engagement rates, we've lost sight of what truly builds lasting influence: genuine community. In this session I challenge the conventional wisdom of social media optimization, turning the focus toward what actually matters—creating interconnected communities on and offline. As a Yale PhD student, founder of The Accepted Society, and former Head of Product for Ali Abdaal, I've built my platform not by chasing algorithms, but by fostering deep connections that extend far beyond the screen. In this talk, I'll share the strategic framework I've developed for cultivating communities that don't just engage with your content, but become integral to your mission and sustainable business model.