The IVF influencer

Making a living as a creator shouldn’t be some elusive thing. And what’s the best way to learn how creators are making it work? To go behind-the-scenes. These bi-weekly interview issues are like having coffee with your favorite creators. 

If we haven’t met before, I’m Amanda Smith. I write about solopreneurship and the creator economy.

Good morning. What comes to mind when you think of an influencer? It’s likely not a scientist in a lab coat, moonlighting as an internet personality. 

That’s what makes this week’s guest so special. She isn’t your stereotypical travel or foodie influencer. She’s literally helping create life and filming the process. 

This story should serve as inspiration to anyone who thinks “social media won’t work for my industry.”

Alease Daniel Barnes discovered the field of embryology through a lot of Googling, back before any content existed. With a degree in genetics and biotechnology, she knew she wanted to do something in the lab, ideally in women’s health. 

Embryologists are the elusive scientists in the white coats, behind closed doors in an IVF clinic, running the lab. They care for the embryos, during the critical five-to-seven-day period, post-egg retrieval. Patients aren’t privy to what goes on in an IVF lab, only receiving incremental updates from embryologists via their doctor. 

But Barnes realized patients want to talk to embryologists. She was traveling to different clinics as an embryologist (similar to travel nursing) and noticed patients were asking the same three to four questions.  

Given the cost of an IVF cycle in the United States, Barnes felt it was her responsibility as a clinician to make this information more readily available, both for her patients and the public. 

Her clinic was running in-person injection support, so Barnes asked if she could tack on 5-10 minutes at the end to go through the basics of what they do in the lab. The clinic wasn’t receptive, so she needed to find another way to get the information out. 

So, she took to social media. 

Her siblings told her to get on TikTok, but she felt she was “too old.” She was wrong. She blew up, as one of the first embryologists on the platform to show what she actually did in the lab. 

“There were a handful of embryologists who showed graphics or still posts, but I was one of the first to do video content,” Barnes said. 

Within a year, a video showing her inject an egg went viral and hit 10.5 million views. She’s since amassed over 156,000 followers on TikTok alone. 

Barnes creates videos about how embryos develop, how they’re stored, behind-the-scenes of an egg retrieval, debunking myths, and questions to ask your clinic. 

“It has brought me a lot of opportunities, and it has become a job, which of course changes the way you think about it. But when I get messages from patients that say they were able to ask their doctor something they saw in a video, it’s an extraordinary feeling.”

Fighting misinformation in her field: “You have to meet people where they are, which is TikTok and Instagram. They’re going to find it whether you’re there or not, so wouldn’t you rather have them get that information from you as their doctor or clinic, not some random person on the internet. It might as well come from you,” Barnes said. 

Pushback from potential employers: There’s a chasm creators need to pass, especially those in non-traditional industries like IVF. “There were times where I specifically didn’t get jobs because of my social media. People said it was unprofessional. But now, people hire me because of my social media. It’s definitely something that’s grown into an asset. I now get asked to make content for a lot of different clinics.” 

Supporting the future of her field: Barnes is doing a service to her field, as there’s a critical shortage of embryologists. She said there’s no clear path to get into embryology, which is why she talks candidly about how to become an embryologist. She gets the “how do I become an embryologist” at least once a day. By publishing content about what it’s like to be an embryologist, she’s attracting the next generation into the field, while educating the growing number of people who need IVF. 

Barnes is a beautiful example of a creator who publishes with a purpose: To educate and empower IVF patients. Career opportunities and clout are secondary. She’s not following the stereotypical creator path of selling a product or course. Instead, she keeps patients in her focus and allows opportunities to come to her as a natural extension of this. 

Barnes says there’s space for every profession on TikTok. “You can make content for literally anything now and people find it interesting.” 

She has plans to one day be involved in a fertility reality show, where they follow someone’s journey through IVF. 

I’d totally watch that.

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