When Fowler Middle School 8th grader Ellen Li is on Instagram, there’s a good chance she’s not posting selfies. Instead, she’s probably updating the account of her cat Topaz. Launched in July 2020, the account, topaz_thecat_ has nearly 2,000 followers.

“I had the idea in mind for a while, and I finally made the account when one of my closest friends made one for her cat too,” Ellen said. “My friends were also getting tired of all my cat pictures so I thought, ‘Why not’.”

Adopted from NBCR after originally seeing Topaz on Petfinder, Ellen’s goals for topaz_thecat are relatively simple.

“I want to have fun and capture something worth remembering,” Ellen said. “My goal for editing is to learn more and create something that I enjoy looking at.”

Animal photography can be tough at times, especially when one needs a specific photo.

“It’s very difficult because he [Topaz] moves around a lot, and I am still experimenting with different methods like the treat method, but he gets too excited around food,” Ellen said. “Topaz is a very independent cat, and he will only pose when he feels like it.” 

That doesn’t mean she isn’t always trying to get good pictures of Topaz. 

“I actually live across the street from Ellen and constantly see her taking pictures of the cat,” neighbor Saanvi Nair said. “I know that photographing animals is very difficult, so it’s really cool to see that hard work pay off in the pictures.”

The work continues away from the camera as Ellen looks to other Instagram accounts for inspiration. 

“There are so many accounts that I look up to, but one of my absolute favorite accounts is @gnocchilli_the_cats,” Ellen said. “Every single one of @gnocchilli_the_cats’ pictures amazes me. Their account is actually the reason I wanted to start editing, and she gave me a lot of helpful tips to get started.”

While Topaz’s Instagram account is slowly growing compared to other accounts, it’s already having an impact on Ellen according to her dad  Xinrong Li.

“We are glad to see she is so enthusiastic and happy about posting pictures of Topaz,” Xinrong said. “At the same time, same as any other parents, we are concerned about a few things such as Internet safety, too much time on social media, etc.”

It’s a sentiment echoed by Ellen.

“This account helped me learn to manage my time better, and it has also taught me more about Internet safety,” Ellen said. “I’ve always been interested in photography, and adopting Topaz has helped me pursue those interests.”

Now that she has established an Instagram account for Topaz, Ellen doesn’t have plans on stopping any time soon. 

“I want to continue to improve my animal photography skills and expand to taking pictures of things other than Topaz,” she said. “My goal is to start fostering, and I’m hoping that I can use his account to showcase the fosters.”