Welcome to Streamers on the Rise, where we find streamers who are growing their channels, content, and audiences in extraordinary ways. Each week we’ll talk with a creator about what goes into livestreaming–both on and off camera.
Storymodebae hates editing videos.
If it’s short-form, she’ll drag herself through it. But long-form? For YouTube? She’s got mad respect for the people who have the patience for it, but she’s not one of them.
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So, when someone told her to try Twitch–where it’s all in the moment and editing is simply not a thing–she was immediately intrigued.
She’d originally joined YouTube because she’s been a gamer for about as long as she can remember. She’s got fond memories of seeing Doom on her dad’s work computer in the 90s, and choosing between games like Frogger and Crash Bandicoot for her first-gen PlayStation. When she got older and started playing more challenging (and narrative-based, hence the “story mode” in Storymodebae), she, like most gamers, went online for guides whenever she got stuck. The whole online ecosystem around gaming fascinated her, and that’s how she ended up trying her hand at YouTube.
But Twitch was a whole different world–one that really felt like home.
At the same time as Storymodebae was building her Twitch community, she was attending college with plans to be a teacher, and also working as a waitress. She fit streaming in between classes and work shifts, managing one or two hours when she could. She’d intended for Twitch to stay a hobby, but she slowly realized that wasn’t how things were shaking out.
“I just continued to become more passionate about streaming and building a community,” she says. “Finally, I graduated and I realized I don’t want to be a teacher anymore. I know I have this degree, but I’m just honestly not interested.”
She got her degree right as the COVID pandemic kicked in, quit her waitressing job, and went full-time on Twitch.
Now she has more than 40,000 followers, and just launched a weekly live talk show, The Refresh, in partnership with UMG.
We’ll let her tell you all about it below.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Tubefilter: I’m familiar with you and with your content and with your channel, but for somebody who’s reading this and has never seen you or your videos, give me a little bit of background about where you’re from and your journey up to getting on Twitch.
Storymodebae: Okay. Hi, everyone. My name is Bri, otherwise known as Storymodebae. I am a lover of video games. Normally, I play first-person narrative type of games, which is where “story mode” comes from. Other than video games, honestly, I’m a fan of so many things. I love music, I love food, I love pop culture. Even though my name is Storymodebae, my content isn’t just based on video games. I try to base my content off all of the things that I love and I’m passionate about.
To answer your question, I started my streaming journey in 2017. Even though I love playing video games, I’m not the best at video games, so I was always lost, and still am, in whatever I play. In 2017, I started looking on YouTube and I would look at people’s let’s plays and walkthroughs to try to figure out how to get out of a certain area of the game. The more that I started watching those videos, I was like, “Huh. Maybe I just want to try this as a hobby.” I have my PlayStation, I love video games. I wanted to give it a try.
I started on YouTube for about six months and it was really cool, but I realized I do not like editing videos at all. At the end of 2017, someone that had found my channel was telling me about Twitch and I was like, “What is Twitch? I’ve never heard of that before.” At the beginning of 2018, I finally gave it a try. The fact that everything was live and I didn’t have to edit anything, I was sold. That’s pretty much what did it for me. Since then, it’s been great.
Tubefilter: I will say, the fact that you’re saying that you’re not great at navigating through games…I know you played Outlast, and having played Outlast, that’s one of the most difficult horror games I’ve had to navigate.
Storymodebae: See, the thing is, I like to say that I have a very disrespectfully long backlog. I will start a game, but if I get frustrated or too scared, like Outlast, I’m not going to finish it. That’s my flaw.
Tubefilter: That’s how I was with SOMA. SOMA‘s really good, but it took me forever to get through because it scared the sh*t out of me.
Storymodebae: I completely understand.
Tubefilter: I did want to ask, I saw that you’re playing Killer Frequency. Do you like it?
Storymodebae: I actually really like it. I started it last week. It’s a different type of style, but I’m into it so far. We’re still really early on in the game, but I’ve been trying to experiment with playing a couple of more indie games and things like that, but so far so good.
Tubefilter: How did you originally get into games?
Storymodebae: I have been playing games literally since I was like four or five years old. My dad, I remember going to his job back in the ’90s, and I would go to his job and I would see at his work computer, he was playing a video game and it was so violent, and even though it was so pixelated, I was like, “Whoa, this is the coolest thing ever.” It was Doom. I was just so amazed. I was like, “Whoa, this is so cool.” I’m not sure the time period between when I first saw Doom, but my parents got me a PlayStation, and I remember my mom took me to Toys R Us and she said, “Okay, you pick what game you want.” It was between Frogger and Crash Bandicoot 2, and I picked Crash Bandicoot 2, and ever since then I have had some controller or device attached to my hand.
Tubefilter: I know you said you originally were like, “Oh, I’m going to do Twitch as a hobby.” Is it your full-time thing now, and how did it become a full-time thing then? Was there a moment where you knew you wanted to commit, or was it gradual?
Storymodebae: It was definitely gradual. It started as a hobby. I sometimes feel like I’m a pessimist. For a long time I was like, “I see other people are gaining success off of streaming and creating content,” but for whatever reason, I was like, “No, I can’t do that. I’m going to college, I’m supposed to be a teacher. I’ve been going to college for X amount of years. I need to stay focused.”
The longer I started streaming and getting creative and making content, and it was my last year of college and I was student teaching, so I had to actually physically go into the classroom and teach and observe, that was from 8:00 AM to 3:00 PM, and I realized I was so excited to leave the school just so I can boot up my stream. I was doing that Monday through Friday, ending school at 3:00 and then coming home, eating real quick, streaming for two hours, eating dinner, creating a lesson plan, going to sleep, and just rinse and repeat all week.
I just continued to become more passionate about streaming and building a community. Finally, I graduated and I realized I don’t want to be a teacher anymore. I know I have this degree, but I’m just honestly not interested. It got to the point, early 2020–
Tubefilter: Good timing.
Storymodebae: Yes! Early 2020 I was still working my restaurant job because streaming was making money, but I still had to actually have some kind of income. I was like, “I don’t want to work in a restaurant and I don’t want to teach anymore. There’s something about streaming and content creating that’s really pulling me in.” I quit my job February 2020–after saving a lot of money, by the way. I think I had the conversation on stream. My community helped me write up my resignation letter and I quit and I became a full-time streamer.
Then in March, the pandemic started and my previous coworker text me and she said, “Hey, everyone’s been laid off.” I was like, “Okay, well, I can’t go back to that, so I really have to lean in.” I wanted to give myself at least a year to try out streaming and content creating full-time, but during that year, I was able to host my own show on Twitch, I was able to host several shows on Twitch and really just build my audience and build my community. I feel like I am so lucky to be in this position because it really worked out for the better.
Tubefilter: Yes. That was insane timing.
Storymodebae: Yes. It’s bittersweet, really.
Tubefilter: Yes. Weird as it feels to say it, that was a really good year for Twitch.
Storymodebae: It was. Isn’t that so weird to say? It’s weird, but it was. Everyone was stuck inside the house and looking for forms of entertainment. I’m not sure if it’s still at this point, but I know in 2020 it got to the point where people were more tuned into Twitch than they were cable TV and things like that.
Tubefilter: Yes, absolutely. I know you hate editing, but you do have a YouTube channel with a decent number of subscribers. I’m guessing you hired an editor for that?
Storymodebae: Yes. I hired an editor, and his name is Colin. He’s great and he gets my style and he sees the vision.
Tubefilter: And you don’t have to do it.
Storymodebae: I don’t have to do it, right. I can edit, but I can do short-form content. If it’s under a minute, I’m like, “Okay, I can do this.” But the longer YouTube videos and things like that, I don’t have the bandwidth or the patience, really. I’m super appreciative for those that are able to edit and those who are able to do it for themselves. It’s really incredible.
Tubefilter: Yes, same. You’re talking a bit about being able to build your community and really grow your community on Twitch. A lot of the other people I’ve spoken to have really struggled with that because Twitch doesn’t offer a lot of discoverability tools or features. I was curious how your other platforms, like your YouTube channel, have played into your growth and what other aspects played into you being able to establish community on Twitch?
Storymodebae: Honestly, it’s still a little bit of a wave I’m trying to figure out and ride. I think one of the biggest things is just not depending on one platform to be discovered on. We talked about having Twitch and YouTube, but also, I have a TikTok and Instagram and Twitter, what Twitter was or threads now, and just trying to diversify my content on all of these different platforms. Yes, it’s definitely a struggle. I think it’s also important to network.
Issa Rae, who is one of my favorite celebrities and creators ever, but she had this quote that basically when you think about networking, instead of trying to network up, you network across, so you network work with people that are in the same lane as you and you can all create and build together. I feel like that has really helped me build community and share communities with other people, too.
@storymodebae This soundtrack is actually insane 😭 #saintsrow #gaming #gamingtiktok #gamingsetup #neyo #fyp #foryou #saintsrow2 ♬ original sound – storymodebae
Tubefilter: What’s your current streaming schedule now? You were only streaming two hours a day before, so now what does your schedule look like?
Storymodebae: Honestly, I feel like it changes every week, depends on what else I have going on. Currently, I try to keep a Monday through Thursday schedule. I’ll stream for about maybe three or four hours a week or three or four hours a stream. I have realized I’m not good with an eight-hour type of stream. That’s not me. After a certain point, I’m like, “Okay, I don’t want to talk anymore. I don’t want to sit anymore.” I try to stay true to myself because I feel like when I’m not feeling it, my chat and my community can definitely tell that I’m not feeling it. Yes, that’s currently my schedule at the moment. again, it depends on what I have going on that week if I’m hosting or if I have to travel for work. It changes up sometimes.
Tubefilter: Tell me more about your hosting, because it seems to be something you’re really passionate about. What sorts of things have you been hosting and what are you looking forward to?
Storymodebae: My first time hosting ever, it was called This Is Dope. Originally, it started during Black History Month in 2020. It was basically a show to highlight Black creators on the Twitch platform. We did a Women’s History Month edition and a drag queens edition, and it was it’s so cool to be a part of. Then since then, I’ve hosted for Live Nation, I’ve done work for GameStop, I did the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, where I was able to fly to Tokyo, thanks to Twitch, and interview different athletes and NBC correspondents and play games with them. It was super cool. Currently, very soon, I will be hosting my own show on Twitch. I’m super excited.
Tubefilter: Can you tell me more about it or is it a no-spoilers kind of thing?
Storymodebae: You’re the first person that I’ve told. It’s called The Refresh. Like I said, I am super passionate about pop culture and music. As much as I love video games, I really wanted a show that grasp all the things that I’m passionate about. One of the big things is music. In collaboration with UMG, who is the biggest music platform label in the world, I feel like, we’re going to be doing a show every Friday. It’s almost like a spin of TRL mixed with a little bit of Ziwe, mixed with a little bit of Desus & Mero, but really tying in what makes Twitch unique and with having that community and chat engagement and interaction with it. It’s all live. I’m super, super excited about it. Yes, you are the first person to know.
Tubefilter: That’s very cool! How long is the first episode?
Storymodebae: About two hours long.
Tubefilter: How did that come about? Did UMG reach out to you?
Storymodebae: Yes. Actually, someone from UMG reached out to me and they said that they were fans of my content for a long time. Anyone says that they’re a fan of my content, I’m like, “Oh my god. What have you seen?” It gets wild over there. They wanted to have a conversation just if I was interested in anything at all. Honestly, I’ve always wanted to have a show of my own for so long. Really, I’m just so fortunate and grateful that this opportunity happened, and I was able to pitch this idea, and everyone was on board with it. I’m just super excited. I feel like it worked out at the perfect time.
Tubefilter: Well, one of my next questions is usually, are you working on any projects? Do you have anything else going on that you’re looking forward to? In case you didn’t just answer that.
Storymodebae: Outside of The Refresh that’s coming up, I’m going to be hosting DreamCon at the end of July. DreamCon is a huge anime/gaming/pop culture convention that happens in Austin, Texas. It’s hosted by RDC, who is such a super creative and dope group of people. Yes, I’m going to be one of the hosts there, so I’m super excited.
Tubefilter: What’s been your favorite part of being on twitch?
Storymodebae: Honestly, from Twitch and just content creating in general, I love having a space where I can be myself. I feel like with all of the jobs that I worked with in the past, I feel like I had to hide parts of who I was or code switch and things like that. The thing about streaming and creating your own content, you’re you and you can do whatever you want. I think it’s so cool to authentically be myself but also have a community and a following behind me that really likes me. We’re all having the same interests and the same thoughts, and we’re able to build that sense of community. I’m just really fortunate. It’s all been a really, really cool experience.
Tubefilter: Any last things? Is there anything that you would want readers to know about you?
Storymodebae: I think I would love everyone to know, even though I play video games, that’s not all that I do. While I’m here in this position, I want to shake up the gaming space, shake up the streaming space as much as I can. We slightly talked about it earlier, but a gamer doesn’t look one specific way. We have so many different types of gamers out here, and I think that’s important to highlight. I just want to shake things up as much as I can.
