Maya Higa

Then one night after one of these livestreams, I got a call from a zookeeper friend about this red-tailed hawk who had been hit by a car, and he needed help.

So we brought Bean, that's what we called him, home to my college house, and I started to rehabilitate him in my backyard.

So then one night, I'm livestreaming, I'm cooking, I'm talking about this new hawk in my backyard, and one of my viewers didn't believe me.

They didn't believe that I had a bird in my backyard, and I could not have that.

So I put my falconry glove on, and I brought the bird inside to show them.

Of course, because I have a problem.

And one of the people watching this stream made a short video of this moment, and they shared it on Reddit.

And it went viral.

So my viewership shot up overnight, and I started livestreaming Bean's rehabilitation process.

So I'd call him from his perch to my glove, and the people watching my stream started becoming as invested as I was in his recovery.

It was like they were doing it with me, sort of, which was the coolest thing that I've ever done.

And then eventually, because I was reaching so many people with Bean Story, the zoo that I worked at started allowing me to bring animals like cockatoos and reptiles home to present on my livestream.

So suddenly, somehow, I had turned this zoo outreach job that I had into a work-from-home situation, right?

Which is awesome, but instead of reaching 20 kids at a time in a classroom, I was reaching thousands of people at a time, all over the world.

So this was when it really clicked for me, right?

I wanted to do this for the rest of my life, but I wanted to do it at a much, much larger scale.

So then two years later, at 22 years old, I came up with a plan, and the vision was to build an animal sanctuary that nobody visits, or at least not in person.

So we would rescue animals and build huge animal enclosures, and we would livestream conservation education programs online so people could fall in love with our animals the way that they fell in love with Bean, that bird.

Our animals would be able to reach millions and millions of people without having to meet a single one of them in person.

And then, of course, I would fundraise all of the capital to do all of these things and build this entire facility in one single livestream, which is the craziest idea that I've ever had.