Influencers are everywhere. They shape what we wear, what we buy, what we watch, and even how we talk. Students know this better than anyone—they follow creators, trust peer recommendations, and pay attention to who’s leading the conversation.
So here’s the real question: if influence is already baked into student culture, why not use it to build a stronger reading culture?
Educators can do exactly that by identifying and empowering reading influencers—students who naturally inspire others to pick up a book. In our webinar, Find Your Reading Champions, library media specialists Gina Chandler and Jessica Stepp shared how they turned student enthusiasm into school-wide momentum, achieving impressive results.
What Is a Reading Influencer, Really?
A reading influencer isn’t about popularity, social media presence, or the loudest voice in the room. Instead, it’s about authentic enthusiasm and peer-to-peer impact.
Reading influencers are students who genuinely enjoy reading, naturally talk about books, and lead by example in subtle yet powerful ways. Research shows that students are more likely to adopt behaviors they see modeled by their peers. When reading is visible, social, and celebrated by students themselves, engagement becomes organic rather than forced.
As Gina Chandler discovered at Sea Castle Elementary, the most effective ambassadors are often the students who already live and breathe reading. “What better person to bring the love of reading than somebody who really loves it?” she shared, reflecting on selecting her first Beanstack Ambassador.
When students see their peers celebrated for reading, something shifts. Reading stops feeling like an assignment and starts feeling like something worth sharing.
Step One: Spot the Influence (It’s Not Always the Loudest Student)
Finding reading influencers doesn’t require an application process or a popularity contest. In fact, it’s often simpler than that.
Start by observing:
- Who consistently checks out books?
- Who talks about what they’re reading without prompting?
- Who do other students naturally look to or listen to?
At Sea Castle Elementary, Gina leaned into this idea by identifying a standout student reader and giving her a visible leadership role. That single decision helped spark excitement and increase buy-in across the school community.
While this example comes from elementary schools, the same principles apply across grade levels. Older students simply need roles that match their maturity, independence, and interests, but peer influence remains just as powerful.
Step Two: Give Reading Influencers a Platform
Influencers need visibility to make an impact, and the same is true in schools. Once students are identified, the next step is to make their role official and meaningful. This doesn’t need to be complicated. Schools have found success by:
- Introducing ambassadors during morning announcements
- Giving them a title or badge
- Letting them visit classrooms or model reading behaviors
At Sea Castle, the ambassador role wasn’t symbolic; it was active. The student ambassador helped reward readers, deliver shout-outs, and even demonstrate how to log reading, reinforcing reading as something students do together.
When students see reading leaders walking the halls, celebrating peers, and sharing excitement, reading becomes visible—and contagious.
Step Three: Amplify Their Impact with the Right Tools
Influencers don’t just inspire, they share progress. That’s where tools like Beanstack come in. By making reading engagement visible, schools give student ambassadors something to rally around:
- Reading streaks
- Participation milestones
- School-wide goals
At Clearfield Elementary, Beanstack helped transform reading into a social experience. Leaderboards, challenges, and progress tracking sparked friendly competition and made reading a topic students discussed daily.
As Jessica Stepp at Clearfield notes, when students can see their own and their peers’ progress, motivation skyrockets. Reading becomes less about compliance and more about community.
Step Four: Let Recognition Be the Reward
Every influencer thrives on recognition, and students are no different. Recognition doesn’t have to mean big prizes. Often, it’s the small moments that matter most: public shout-outs, badges, certificates, and school-wide celebrations that reinforce reading as something worth noticing.
Clearfield Elementary leaned into this idea by connecting reading to meaningful incentives, including a book vending machine and visible celebrations of progress. These moments didn’t just motivate reading; they also reinforced positive behaviors and overall school engagement.
The best part? These programs didn’t require more time. They worked because reading leadership and recognition were woven into what schools were already doing.
Why This Works Well for School Culture
When students lead, others follow. That’s true on social media and in schools.
Both Sea Castle and Clearfield saw success because they centered students as leaders, not just participants. By empowering reading influencers, they created cultures where:
- Reading felt social and celebrated
- Students felt proud of their progress
- Engagement spread naturally from peer to peer
At Sea Castle, participation climbed and enthusiasm followed, reinforcing the belief that every success at the school level involves student engagement.
Your Influencers Are Already There
You don’t need to create influence from scratch. It already exists in your school—waiting to be recognized.
If you’re not ready to launch a full ambassador program, start small. Identify one student who loves reading and ask them to help celebrate someone else’s reading this week. One moment of recognition can spark something bigger.
When students become the face of reading, books gain buzz, and reading becomes something students want to be part of.
Next steps:
- Watch the Find Your Reading Champions webinar on demand
- Explore the Sea Castle and Clearfield case studies
- Start building your own reading influencer program