Throughout June, Game Rant has conducted a series of interviews to spotlight LGBTQ content creators on Twitch. The next streamer is AshleyRoboto, a Twitch streamer who’s been full-time for a few years now and recently became a Twitch Ambassador. Besides streaming, she also flexes her creative muscles by drawing all of her own emotes for her channel.
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Inspiration Behind AshleyRoboto’s Brand
Ashley originally started streaming in mid-May of 2017. She always wanted to do content creation, especially as a kid when she found YouTube. She dabbled in content creation on the platform but always felt like something was missing. After being on Twitch, she’s realized it was the community aspect and being able to talk to people live. When she first went live, Ashley had some of her friends come into chat with her so she didn’t feel lonely, and since then she’s been streaming steadily ever since.
According to Ashley, her username “doesn’t really make sense,” especially when she looks back on it, but she still likes it. All things considered, that username has worked out pretty well, especially because she became a Twitch Ambassador with that username. When asked about being a Twitch Ambassador, Ashley said:
AshleyRoboto’s Top Games to Stream or Play Offline
When it comes to gaming offline and away from stream, Ashley tends to go for games that have a lot of replayability. If she wants to relax, she’ll play games that are collect-a-thons, so something like Spyro. Ashley also loves The Legend of Zelda, especially Ocarina of Time and Majora’s Mask. Recently, she said she’s been playing a lot of Resident Evil Village both on and off stream, having beat it four times already.
Ashley has also realized that she’s played a lot of story-based games on stream, which works out well because it helps her throw jokes about the game. Story-based games give a unique opportunity for jokes because she’s able to get to know the characters, the story, etc., and then she’s able to crack jokes about them specifically.
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How AshleyRoboto Navigates Twitch and Social Media
Ashley’s Twitch timeline was pretty much a fast-growing snowball from August 2019 onward but has since steadied. August 2019 was when she saw her videos go viral in succession, which was a double-edged sword for her. On one hand, it helped her platform and content grow fairly quickly, leading to her getting partnered in October 2019. However, it led to her receiving a lot of hate because her videos were so popular, which was understandably “super stressful.” When it comes to dealing with hate, Ashley said:
As Ashley has remained on the Twitch platform, she said she’s developed a thicker skin that allows very few things to get to her anymore. In fact, when people come in and try to troll her, she turns it back around on them to hopefully embarrass them for what they’ve tried to say. Her hope is that if they get embarrassed by what they’ve said in her chat, they will refrain from doing it in the future because they know that kind of action leads to embarrassment.
Her favorite part of being on Twitch is the community and friendships she’s formed with other content creators. Twitch has been a saving grace during the pandemic, especially because she’s been able to make new friendships and game with people online in a way she’s not able to with some of her local friends. Ashley’s bubble on Twitch has grown a lot during the pandemic, so she’s excited for when the day comes that she’s able to meet everyone in person.
The most difficult part of being a Twitch streamer, in Ashley’s experience, is imposter syndrome. It’s something she struggles with quite a bit — even recently she had a sub-a-thon that was amazing, but the next day was one of her worst anxiety days in a while. It was because of the comedown from the stream coupled with imposter syndrome telling her she didn’t deserve it. She’s gotten better at recognizing these moments and realizing it’ll probably never go away, she just has to work through those feelings and realize they’re not true. Talking about it and rationalizing it has helped her a lot, but it can still be “rough” to navigate at times.
What AshleyRoboto Does on Twitch
Before Ashley was a full-time streamer, she was prevalent on Twitch in a different way. She used to do emote commissions for streamers but announced in August 2019 that she was taking a break from commissions to take a vacation with her partner. Coincidentally, August 2019 is when her content started to get lots of attention, so she just never opened up commissions again. Now, she still does art, but mainly for herself or close friends. She loves taking LuxieGames’ “chaotic ideas and [making] them something tangible,” saying it’s one of her favorite things.
Ashley can be found on Twitter, Twitch, Instagram, and YouTube at AshleyRoboto. Ashley is known for her positivity and desire to spread joy, which everyone could use a little bit more of. If viewers are looking for a fun, positive experience watching a stream, they need look no further than AshleyRoboto and her Twitch community.
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