- This is where the magic happens, as people would say.
(upbeat music)
I started playing video games when I was very,
very young.
Basically following in my brother's footsteps.
He would play stuff and I would love to join him.
I usually wake up anytime between eight to ten, ideally.
If it's a stream day, I usually go right into
my vanity and do my make-up, get ready.
Every day when I wake up, I have to take these off
because I sleep in them every night.
I can get a lot of wrist pain from playing so much.
I mean, it is my job.
I have double monitors, keyboard, mouse, headset, of course.
I have one PC here and then I actually have
a secret PC behind it because it's actually
really helpful to have a two PC set up
when you are streaming.
I have my mic stand over here and webcam.
That's basically all you need to stream
even though it's quite a bit at this point.
You don't need all this to start streaming though.
I started making a lot of friends online
and some of them lived nearby
and we would just Skype call every night and play
games together.
At one point, they started linking me Twitch streamers
and I would start watching these girls that were streamers
and, obviously they thought the girls were really cute,
but I was watching because I just loved
the content.
I was like, "Wow, I wanna do that someday".
Holy!
(Pokimane laughing)
I feel like me and that guy both didn't expect
to see each other.
I think what people find most appealing about Twitch
is probably the fact that this person that you're watching
on the screen, you get to interact with them
through chat and it almost makes you feel
like whatever they're experiencing, you're there
experiencing with them, so it's more of an experience
as opposed to just a piece of content
that you're watching.
For the first couple years of streaming,
I mostly saw it as a hobby,
something I really enjoyed doing.
I would make some money off of it,
enough for me to not feel like I needed a part-time job.
Once I got to my second year of college,
I saw that instead of just subscriptions on Twitch
and donations sometimes, sponsorships started
coming in, so I would have a set amount
that companies would give me every month to advertise
their product.
When that kind of money started rolling in,
I started seeing it as more of a career path
as opposed to just a hobby.
In University, I was studying chemical engineering.
It was, not gonna lie, very difficult
to manage a full-time engineering course load
along with wanting to stream and not let go
of the momentum that I was building on Twitch.
There was one month where it was midterm season,
full-time engineer, and I had four opportunities
from companies to come to LA.
Literally, four weekends in a row, I would travel
from Toronto to LA and back and forth
during the weekends, the only days that I had off.
I'd be studying on the plane, trying to study
for my midterms, trying to make everything work
together, and by the end of that, I was like,
"I need to take time off and I need to move to LA",
and I did it.
(Pokimane laughing)
Before streaming, I usually like to take a quick selfie
or a picture of something.
Oh, do you guys wanna be in it?
The camera's in it too! Yeah!
Three, two, one.
Hi, guys!
(bright music)
That's why you don't wanna get stuck between two people.
Explaining Twitch to people that don't know
what Twitch is can be a bit difficult.
I usually like to segue through what YouTubers do,
but explaining Twitch to people that don't even know
what YouTube is is just near impossible.
I just try to explain how you enjoy watching
a TV show or entertainment or you enjoy watching,
perhaps, a sports game, whatever it is,
we do the same thing as streamers except we do it live.
Hitting a million followers felt very, very surreal.
When I first started streaming, I never thought
that I'd get there.
I think what made me really, really proud
of what I did was just the fact that I was the first
girl to ever do it.
Thank you. That looks so good.
The most rewarding part about being a Twitch streamer,
by far, I think a content creator, in general,
is just when people come up to you
and they're like, "I really appreciate your content.
You helped me through a rough time."
Said, "Pokimane helped me so much through my depression.
My parents have just recently passed away
in a car accident. I'm only 15, but you helped me
a lot. Thank you very much".
I'm so sorry to hear that, but I'm glad I could help
in some way.
Helping others is just the most satisfying thing
that I can do.
I've also been in that position.
There's so many YouTubers or streamers that I watch
when I'm sad and to know that I can be that
for someone else just feels really nice.
My biggest advice for anyone that's looking to be
a Twitch streamer or an online content creator
is to do it for fun at first.
Way too many people have this idea that you have
to make a career out of it or they're expecting to make
a ton of money out of it, but I promise you
the large majority of people who do make any money
from it, started off just as a hobby.
You have to put in a lot of hours before you see
anything come out of it and you only really
put in hours if you're enjoying what you do.
Before anything else, just have fun
doing what you do or make sure it's something
that you can do for fun and not just for money.