A HOT gamer has revealed how she gave up her original career plan but now makes a six-figure annual salary as a streamer on Twitch.
Amber Wadham, 26, from Adelaide, Australia, has spoken about how she made a decision which changed her life forever.
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The stunning brunette got into gaming from a young age and said she and her brother would play games “religiously” as children.
As she got older, her passion for gaming grew, but she had no idea it could be a possible career for her.
Instead, she was set on becoming a doctor.
Speaking to 7Life, Amber said: “I was really set on getting into medicine at some point.
“I wanted to go to uni, to do my medical studies.”
But after feeling burnt out from her school studies, she decided to take a gap year and worked a number of different jobs.
At 20, she quit her job and was at her lowest ebb.
“One of my friends said, ‘Well, what are you gonna do next?’,” she said.
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“I replied, ‘There’s this thing called Twitch, maybe I’ll check that out’.”
She honed her skills and her love for gaming on the video live-streaming platform and set about building an online audience who religiously watched her play.
Originally, Amber said she would try streaming for six months to see if it went anywhere, playing games from a beanbag in her living room.
Fortunately for her, her profile grew quickly and within six weeks, she already had a regular audience of 60 people.
I was really set on getting into medicine at some point
Amber Wadham
Today, Amber has more than 110,000 followers on Twitch and 50,000 on Instagram.
“It’s now a part of my everyday life, which is incredible,” she said.
Her set-up has grown from just a laptop to a two-monitor and two-computer set-up.
Amber said she loves gaming because it offers escapism from the seriousness of grown-up life.
She is also able to support her mother, all while doing her dream job and raking in a six-figure salary.
However, she admitted that it isn’t easy being a woman on Twitch.
She said that she has “always experienced some level of sexism” in gaming, even before it became her career.
Amber and her female friends would hide their names and avoid using the voice chat function when they played multiplayer games with global strangers.
She remembered on one occasion how they were “berated” by male gamers who told them to “get the f*** off” and said the game was “for boys only”.
The worst incident she ever faced came when she was due to visit the US for the first time to take part in a gaming event.
A threatening stalker began harassing her, saying they wanted to be her boyfriend.
“They said, ‘You’re a woman and you play video games, you’re perfect,’ and I was like, ‘no, I’m not interested’.”
The stalking escalated, to the point that he started sending Amber death threats, and she was forced to cancel her appearance at the event.
Although Amber has stayed strong in the face of sexist trolls, she said that many of her friends have given up their careers in the gaming world because of such behaviour.
She has called for men to “stand up for what’s right” and make the world of gaming a safer space for everyone.
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