Fernanda Araujo Maciel
When I arrived in the United States to pursue my academic career, I carried something with me that no visa document could capture: a deep awareness of what it feels like to learn statistics without resources in your own language. Growing up in Brazil, I knew first-hand that high-quality, accessible statistics education in Portuguese was scarce and that this gap had real consequences for students, professionals, and researchers.
That awareness became a calling. What started in 2020 as a modest YouTube channel—a side project squeezed into evenings and weekends—has grown into something I never fully anticipated: a thriving, multilingual online community of statistics learners and professionals from Brazil, Portugal, Mozambique, and beyond. I share this story because I believe it speaks to an important issue in our field: The question of statistical literacy is often a matter of access. It’s a gap ASA members are uniquely positioned to help close.
Channel Born from a Gap
Fernanda Maciel, my YouTube channel, launched in 2020 with the mission to teach statistics and data analysis in Portuguese in a simple, straightforward way with practical examples.
The response exceeded anything I had imagined. Within a few years, the channel crossed 23,000 subscribers and surpassed 1 million total views. But what moves me most is the comments—from people who could solve a confidence interval problem after watching one of my videos, to those who finally understood what a p-value is, to a professor sharing my videos with his entire class because they were the only free resources he had found in Portuguese at that level.
Estatisticast: Putting Statistics Careers in Conversation
In 2023, I launched Estatisticast, a podcast series dedicated to exploring the careers of people working across the statistics ecosystem. Over 18 months, I recorded 55 episodes with guests working in data science, marketing analytics, econometrics, psychometrics, epidemiology, and more. The show aired on YouTube and Spotify, and it was designed to answer a question I hear constantly from students: Where can I apply my statistics or data analysis skills?
One thing I noticed immediately was how hungry the audience was for honest career conversations with real stories about how people navigated uncertainty, changed directions, and found their place in a data-driven world. That hunger reflects something important: In many parts of Latin America and Africa, young people interested in statistics lack professional role models and career roadmaps. Estatisticast was my attempt to help change that, one conversation at a time.
Social Media as a Bridge to the Community
Alongside the long-form content, I maintain an active educational presence on Instagram (65,000+ followers) and LinkedIn (28,000+ followers), where I share bite-sized explanations of statistical concepts, data literacy tips, book recommendations, and discussions of how statistics appears in everyday life. The formats are different from a lecture or podcast episode, but the mission is the same: make statistics feel approachable, relevant, and exciting.
Social media also functions as a feedback loop. When I post about a concept that generates dozens of follow-up questions, I know it belongs on YouTube as a full video. When a book recommendation sparks a thread of discussion, I learn what topics my community is interested in exploring. The platforms and learners are in constant dialogue with each other.
Digital Presence That Opens Doors
The online community also created opportunities I never anticipated. It led to invitations to teach and speak at universities and industry events throughout Brazil, including the opportunity to deliver the opening class for the University of São Paulo’s MBA in data science program. Those invitations emerged not through formal networking, but because someone had watched a video, listened to a podcast episode, or shared a post.
An Invitation to the Statistics Community
I am not a social media influencer. I am a tenure-track professor who believes the reach of our discipline should not be limited by who can afford a textbook, attend a university, or access content in English. The tools available to us today—YouTube, Spotify, Instagram, and LinkedIn—are extraordinarily powerful vehicles for public statistical education, and I think our community is still underusing them.
You don’t need a production studio or marketing team. You need a genuine commitment to communicating statistics clearly—in whatever language and format resonates with the audience you want to reach. Eager and underserved learners are out there. The gap is real. And ASA members—with our training, credibility, and passion for the field—are exactly the right people to help close it.
Let us keep building the community our field deserves.
Have a story to share? We want to hear it. Do you have a unique perspective or experience that would interest your fellow ASA members? Consider submitting it to our new Member Story series. Email your story to Managing Editor Megan Murphy.
Fernanda Araujo Maciel
California State University, Sacramento
Leave a Reply