Pokimane says Twitch streaming career stole her early 20s

Most Twitch streamers have enjoyed the benefits and privileges their internet fame has offered them, but one streamer said that streaming on the platform has aged her horribly. Pokimane revealed that her Twitch streaming career stole much of her early 20s.

The 25-year-old star streamer, whose real name is Imane Anys, revealed to Dexerto that she regrets spending the last eight years of her life on Twitch, despite racking up millions in earnings and a large viewership. Even after securing a multi-year deal to stay on the platform exclusively in 2020, she said that streaming for as long as she did has left her struggling to figure out her true identity because she never gave herself the chance to live her life as fully as everyone else her age.

“I don’t know myself anymore,” Pokimane confessed. “The weird thing is I just woke up one day, and I had this immense feeling. I grew up streaming, I started streaming when I was 17 years old. And I never really allowed myself to have a normal life. One day I woke and ‘Boom!’ I was 25, and I’d never really done the things I had planned to do.”

Pokimane also admitted that building up her followers and business partnerships made her lose touch with everything that made her feel good, a feeling that was exacerbated by the pandemic. This resulted in her taking several unplanned breaks from streaming throughout the last year, citing mental health as the reason behind them.

While she was away from the keyboard, Pokimane co-founded RTS back in October with fellow Twitch veterans and people from other gaming companies like PUBG Corporation. RTS, inspired by the gaming genre real-time strategy, is a consulting firm that works to help streamers, who are aspiring esports athletes or otherwise, turn their favorite hobby of streaming video games into a full-fledged career.