Pokimane, a popular streamer, joined Anthony Padilla for the latest episode of his “I spent a day with” series. Pokimane’s general streaming career, the smear campaigns and other hate she receives, and her thoughts on a variety of topics, including making errors, were all covered during the show.
Throughout the show, Padilla asked Pokimane if she felt like people “like to minimize others to their mistakes.” Because streamers and other massive online presences cultivate huge followings, they are oftentimes held to extremely high standards, and deal with a multitude of negativity when they do make mistakes. Pokimane said in regards to relating people to their mistakes; “I think some people do, um, I hope that the majority of people don’t. If anything, I think it is a much better story to be like, ‘oh, this person made a mistake and still was able to learn and grow from it and achieve all these things.’ If I make a mistake, like, that’s okay, I can still do so much. A mistake shouldn’t define you as a person.”
Along with discussing faults, the two also discussed Pokimane’s constant hatred and scrutiny. Padilla said to Pokimane; “The negativity you face online isn’t just confined to specific moments. You’ve had entire smear campaigns built around you.”
Poki then responded stating; “That’s just what happens when hating you is profitable. So, obviously, people will look to profit. Honestly, even for them, they’re just doing what produces a successful result, in a sense, even if it’s at my mental health’s expense.”
Pokimane, like all other streamers or creators whose lives are always in the spotlight online, has been involved in numerous issues. While some of these incidents were genuine problems, many of the accusations leveled against Pokimane were based on isolated incidents. In terms of worrying about people taking things out of context, Pokimane said she “felt that pressure a lot.”
She said; “Initially it was like, should I be super careful about everything that I do? But then you’re essentially putting yourself in a very small box, and that is not fun. Literally anything can be taken out of context.”
Padilla also inquired about Pokimane’s feelings about her gender being brought up in the context of her accomplishments. Pokimane has been the first female streamer to hit several milestones as one of the industry’s greatest female streamers, and her accomplishments are frequently highlighted as firsts for her gender. Pokimane said; “When I achieve anything and people relate it to my gender I take it as a win for my gender. When I hit a million followers on Twitch, the thing that made me the happiest about that milestone was not just that I hit a million followers on Twitch. It was that a woman hit a million followers on Twitch.”
