From vintage aircraft to birdwatching to climate change, these three new creators prove there’s still plenty worth discovering online.
Scroll social media long enough and it all begins to look the same: the same trends, the same destinations and the same carefully-curated versions of everyday life. But some of today’s most trend-setting voices online aren’t interested in following that same formula.
Here are three leading online creators worth watching in 2027.
Kate Broug: Pulling Historic Aviation Into Today
Most people interested in military aviation probably would start by visiting a local museum. Kate Broug instead decided to fly her own 1943 Boeing Stearman open cockpit biplane 3,700 miles across the United States. Broug’s electrifying journey retraced the same routes flown by WWII’s Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASPs), pioneering women who ferried military aircraft during the Second World War.
Herself a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and member of The Explorers Club, Broug has built her career around aviation, exploration and cultural heritage. Broug’s work focuses on preserving not only historic aircraft but also the craftsmanship, knowledge and human stories behind them. Broug’s social media series Hidden Aviation uncovers the lesser-known corners of flight, from obscure aviation instruments and forgotten wartime inventions, to secret aircraft and little-known historical events. Sometimes filmed from inside an aircraft carrier, an aviation museum, or a library, the series also includes panoramic sequences by cinematographers such as Fernando Urdapilleta and Joanna Lin. Either way, Broug’s videos make specialist aviation history accessible to a wider audience.
Broug’s longer documentary series, First Flights, takes her curiosity even further, exploring aviation history with firsthand encounters, expeditions, interviews and investigations. Recent projects have collaborated with Rainforest Foundation, the Royal Netherlands Air Force, the USS Intrepid, and the National WASP WWII Museum.
Broug’s interest in heritage also extends beyond just aviation. At a recent Explorers Club gala, Broug wore a dress she designed from a vintage Second World War parachute, drawing attention to the wartime tradition of transforming military materials into personal clothing. Represented by Storm Management LA, the agency that discovered both Kate Moss and Cara Delevingne, Broug’s approach to preservation and aviation adventure has recently attracted coverage in ELLE, Marie Claire, Variety, The Village Voice, and more.
Follow for: Aviation adventure, extraordinary engineering, living heritage and forgotten history.
Get Birding with Sean Bean: The Appeal of Looking Up
Sean Bean has spent much of his career playing characters who rarely make it to the final credits. The actor, best known as Boromir in The Lord of the Rings and Ned Stark in Game of Thrones, now is encouraging people to try a much less dangerous pursuit: birdwatching.
As host of Get Birding, Bean introduces audiences to the natural world through a podcast that makes birdwatching accessible to everyone. Bean’s involvement is rooted in a lifelong fascination with wildlife, which itself began while growing up on a housing estate in Sheffield.
Launched in 2021, Get Birding has grown into an award-winning podcast providing video content and an online community. Now in its fourth season, Get Birding features Bean’s conversations with scientists, conservationists, musicians and fellow nature enthusiasts. Guests have included famed ornithologist Dr. Mya-Rose Craig, broadcaster Jeremy Vine and musician Guy Garvey.
Bean’s series also ventures well beyond the recording studio, taking listeners out to nature preserves and wetlands across Britain. For example, at RSPB Ham Wall in Somerset, Bean recently took wildlife experts out to explore the return of bird species to restored habitats. Other episodes examine everything from the extraordinary journeys of migratory birds to the distinctive aviary sounds of the British countryside.
What makes Get Birding particularly appealing is its accessibility. You don’t need expensive binoculars, a remote wilderness or specialist knowledge to begin. A garden, city park or apartment window will do. With a pleasing contradiction at its heart, the Get Birding podcast actually encourages people to spend less time on their screens and more time looking at the world around us.
Follow for: Wildlife discoveries, accessible nature education, and remarkable birdwatching.
Alice Aedy: Climate Storytelling Impossible to Ignore
Climate communication can be a difficult task: how to engage people in a subject they feel complicated, frightening and politically charged?
British photographer and filmmaker Alice Aedy has spent much of her career exploring that question. As co-founder and CEO of Earthrise, a media platform and creative studio dedicated to environmental storytelling, Aedy deploys a contemporary approach to climate journalism that combines documentary filmmaking, photography and social media.
Aedy’s early work focused on displacement, migration and communities affected by conflict. Those interests continue to shape Aedy’s environmental reporting, which frequently examines the relationship between climate change, human rights and social inequality.
Through Earthrise, Aedy has helped bring environmental stories to millions of viewers, combining the visual language of contemporary digital media with the research and reporting of traditional documentary filmmaking. A National Geographic Explorer and Nikon ambassador, Aedy has appeared in campaigns for Stella McCartney and spoken at international events including the PhotoVogue Festival, exploring the relationship between creativity, environmental awareness and our connection to the natural world.
Rather than presenting the climate crisis as an abstract collection of statistics, Aedy focuses on the people actually experiencing its consequences and the communities who are developing solutions. Aedy’s projects demonstrate that environmental storytelling can be visually compelling without sacrificing substance, finding room for creativity and optimism alongside difficult realities.
Follow for: Environmental documentaries, inspiring photography, climate solutions and stories about the people shaping our planet’s future.
The Rise of the Curious Creator
A vintage biplane, a pair of binoculars and a climate documentary may not seem to have much in common. But Kate Broug, Sean Bean, and Alice Aedy represent an increasingly valuable corner of the creator economy.
Broug connects us with flight and our own history, Sean Bean asks us to pay closer attention to our present environment, and Aedy encourages us to think differently about our climate’s future. In an age of seemingly endless scrolling, that might be the most valuable influence of all.
