Hillsdale junior Nathan Stanish is a social media celebrity. But not on Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, or YouTube. 

Stanish has 20,000 followers on Quora, where he has 87 million content views and holds the top most-viewed writer spot in multiple topics, ranging from Marvel to tennis.

“I don’t exactly remember how I found out he was Quora famous — before meeting Nathan I didn’t know that was something you could be,” junior Ruthie Chinery said. “The fact that he even has lore as one of the most popular Quora teens is the most baffling thing of all. In one day, I not only found out that Quora was a website, but that one of my friends was famous on it.” 

Quora, a website where users can quickly answer  niche questions, is not commonly understood as a social media platform. But when Stanish stumbled across  the platform in January 2018 during his freshman year of high school, he found it to be an outlet for practicing his writing and a place for a stable community. It was something his other hobby — editing Wikipedia pages — didn’t offer.

“I started to realize Quora was closer to what I actually wanted to do, which was just to write,” Stanish said. “Unlike Twitter or Facebook, where it’s primarily about your brand and selling your message, Quora is more interested in actually discussing information and sharing knowledge.” 

Three to four months after starting his Quora account, Stanish began writing on the Marvel Cinematic Universe. By January 2019, his account had hit 1 million content views, and he was the top-viewed writer in the Marvel category. 

“At school, I felt like I was well known, but you wouldn’t call me the ‘popular kid’ or anything,” Stanish said. “Quora had an effect on me big time. It gave me some, I would say, false confidence. But above all, it kept creating this huge dichotomy between my online presence and my real presence.” 

The dichotomy was so distinct even his parents didn’t know about it. 

“They’d ask what I was doing, and I would lie and say, ‘I’m doing a project’ or something like that,” Stanish said. “It just spiraled to the point where it was like I was leading a total double life.” 

There was more going on than simply answering people’s questions about Superman. Underneath his answers, upvotes, and followers, there were Discord servers, or online chat rooms, friendships, and even fangirls that took Q&A to a different place. 

“It was definitely becoming an ego thing,” Stanish said. “I wouldn’t share this with people in real life at the time, but I was enjoying it. I would estimate that there were at least 200 fangirls who left regular, positive content interactions and maybe 20 to 30 obsessive people who liked to read everything I wrote and messaged me. I would get a lot of weird messages.”

In January 2019, Stanish discovered “Teen Quora ‘’ and joined a Discord server where the popular teen writers would communicate.  

“I joined the ‘Teen Quora’ Discord server, which was probably a bad idea,” Stanish said. “I joined to get to know some of the writers, and I was like, ‘Oh, this is pretty fun.’ I started to talk to other people about their writing experience, get to know the community, and plug in more.”

From here, Stanish established his gimmick; most of the popular teen writers had one. They ranged from defenestration to venn diagrams to Stanish’s own — selfies and flirting. 

The gimmick caught on, and Stanish created “The Circle of Love,” a Discord server for him to communicate with his fan girls. It grew to about 400 members. Simultaneously, he gained popularity beyond just his answers. 

“It’s just not healthy for a person with a homeschool background who wasn’t used to that kind of attention,” Stanish said.

Stanish was homeschooled until eighth grade when he began a hybrid learning program with his local public school, coming in to take a few classes throughout the day and heavily involving himself in after school extracurriculars. 

“I’m a three-time all star in individual and group improv and spontaneous speaking, I did a lot of academic decathlon, and I was a state champion in the speech and essay competition my senior year,” Stanish said. 

Despite his involvements and social personality, developing full-fledged relationships on a hybrid schedule was a challenge for Stanish. 

“I knew a lot of people, and I was always super active in church, but I wasn’t really able to connect that deeply,” Stanish said. “I had some good friends, but having an online community where I’m not just the guy who visits for four classes at the time, that does make a difference.” 

Eventually, one of these friendships developed into a relationship — one he was not allowed to have. During a search through Stanish’s phone in January 2020, his dad found out about the relationship, his Quora account, and his online persona. 

“I would say that was probably God because my dad found everything,” Stanish said. “I was the goody two shoes. I did every ministry possible. I volunteered at the church as much as I could. I was super open about my faith. It just crushed them, especially my mom, because I was  doing things that are contrary to my faith, while claiming to be an open, professing Christian in my writing.” 

Stanish and his dad took up a daily Bible study going through “The Pursuit of Holiness” by Jerry Bridges. His parents asked him to step away from volunteering at his church until his outward profession matched his inward practice.  

“It was like my life had really fallen apart,” Stanish said.  “And my dad helped me pick up the pieces. He was just so gentle. He was so gentle and kind in helping me realize, ‘You fell away from the path, let’s build you back up.’” 

Concerned fans eventually caught onto Stanish’s disappearance. These fans took to Quora en masse to ask: what happened to Nathan Stanish? One Quoran’s answer received almost 16,000 views. 

“I am sure, once he gets out of high school, he will be back on Quora, but there were some serious personal issues he had to deal with on the home front,” one commentator, Madden, said. “He is a fascinating writer and will be even more so when he matures.” 

Other responses were not nearly that diplomatic or flattering. 

“I do not miss Nathan Stanish,” Mandy Mariano wrote. “He does have a way with words in his answers, but there are other good writers out there. He wasn’t the only good writer.” 

Stanish decided to post a story with one of his iconic selfies to explain. 

“It seemed like people were hating on my parents,” Stanish said. “The mentality was  ‘how dare your parents. They’re too strict or overbearing.’ So, I specifically wrote about how my parents are the hero of this story. They rescued me.” 

 Stanish has since returned to Quora after convincing his skeptical parents, and he continues to write as a monetized hobby. “I want to set the scene for you,” said Jacob Fox, Stanish’s freshman year roommate. “Dark room, single lit laptop monitor, and Nathan is hunched over with a bag of Cheerios and caramel m&ms sitting in his lap, furiously typing superhero lore or theological responses at 200 words per minute. This is the scene that I saw most days while being his roommate.” 

In terms of Hillsdale involvement, Stanish maintains his commitment to doing a little bit of everything. He works as a student director of training and ambassador development for admissions. 

“Nathan is just full of these fantastic ideas, which, very much relates to his Quora capabilities,” said Ashley DeMay, student director of hiring for admissions. “He’s also so spontaneous in the fact that he can come up with these genius ideas, just in an instant. It’s absolutely mind blowing. This guy is so creative.” 

He also returned to working in ministry, currently serving on the Student Ministries Board and playing organ for the new EvenPraise services. 

“Nathan has been an enthusiastic and convicted member of the Student Ministry Board,” Chaplain Adam Rick said, “He’s thoughtful in his input, strategic with ministry ideas, and energetic in his service. He has a heart for seeing Christ glorified on campus which is invaluable to the success of our work. He’s also super outgoing, which has been a vital component of our outreach to campus as we’re getting something new off the ground. I’m thankful for him.”