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.
ClaraAtWork wasn’t in a great place.
She’d moved away from her family in California to live with her significant other in Hawaii, and things with the relationship had gone sour. But there was one thing keeping her spirits up: Twitch.
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“One of my best friends had started streaming on Twitch, and I was like, ‘Okay, I’m going to sit here and just support him,'” she says. “It was my escape from what was happening in my real life. Just got involved in his community.”
Through that friend, Clara met another, and he ended up making her a mod over at his channel. Like many streamers, he held regular events where he’d play games with people in the community. One day, Clara plucked up enough courage and offered to join him for a few matches of Apex Legends.
“I really was not good at Apex,” she says. “I was just myself. We were just goofing off, having a good time, just a couple of buddies, just having fun.”
Her friend’s chat seemed to dig watching the two of them. After the stream was over, he approached her. “He was like, ‘Clara, you should really start streaming,'” she says. “I was like, “No, no, no. What do I need to stream for?'”
But he kept encouraging her, and despite her initial denial, she started thinking about it. She’d been in the space for a while. She knew how to engage with a fast-paced chat, and had become a familiar face to many of the people hanging around in the communities she loved. And now she’d gotten a taste of what it was like to be at the center of a stream, and it had gone well.
So, logged on to her Xbox and hit “Go live.” She didn’t have a webcam or any fancy equipment. She streamed voice-only, playing Apex for whoever tuned in. Before long, her audience began to grow, and she found herself with her very own community.
These days, she’s much, much better at Apex (and a Wifeline main, for those of you wondering). She’s got an audience of nearly 90,000 followers and streams every single day–and lately, encouraged by her viewers, she’s been getting into more variety content, showing off her skills across multiple game genres and letting viewers in with some IRL streams.
Check out our chat with her below.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Tubefilter: I would love to start with, pretend that somebody is reading this or watching this, and they’ve never seen your stuff, don’t know who you are. Give me a from-the-ground-up introduction about you, where you’re from, and how you ended up here.
ClaraAtWork: I’m ClaraAtWork. I was born and raised in California. Lived there my whole life until I was 18. Then when I was 18, I moved to Florida. Then after Florida, I lived in Hawaii for a bit. Then while I was in Hawaii, I was living there in a relationship with someone. The relationship took a turn. It wasn’t good anymore. That’s when I really dove deep into Twitch again. One of my best friends had started streaming on Twitch, and I was like, “Okay, I’m going to sit here and just support him.” It was my escape from what was happening in my real life. Just got involved in his community. He had built a nice little small community.
Then through him, I met another streamer named Caution. Caution, he made me a Twitch mod. I was a Twitch mod, just hanging out, always in his chat. After that, he would do Sub Sundays, gaming with viewers type of thing. Finally, one day I had the courage to like, “Okay, I’m going to play with him.” He was one of my really good friends. I had been modding for him for quite some time. I decided to play with him.
I was just myself. I really was not good at Apex. That was the game that we were playing. I really was not good at the time. I was just myself. We were just goofing off, having a good time, just a couple of buddies, just having fun. His chat really just enjoyed us playing together a lot. He was like, “Clara, you should really start streaming. You should do this.” I was like, “No, no, no. What do I need to stream for?” I’m like, “Whatever, I’m not I’m not good like you.” He goes, “No, but you can stream. You don’t have to be a pro player. You can still just have fun and stream. People would enjoy that.”
I started streaming straight off my Xbox. No webcam, nothing. Because I had built such a nice community of friends through his chat and other chats that I had been in, I hit affiliate in my first seven days of streaming.
Tubefilter: Oh, wow.
ClaraAtWork: Streaming right off my Xbox. No webcam, nothing. Just having fun sitting there talking to my chat. I don’t even know how many people were there at the time, maybe 15 to 30 viewers. It was just really fun. That’s how it all started out. Then right after once I hit affiliate, I was like, “Okay, I should probably take this a little bit more seriously. I see a little bit more potential. I want to have more fun.” That’s how it’s always been for me, is just always looking at streaming as a fun, like I’m going to hang out with my friends kind of thing. We’re just going to game, have a good time.
Then that same person, Caution, helped me. He’s like, “Here’s some basic webcam, basic this. This is what you can do to stream off your Xbox and have the webcam and everything, make it look a little bit more professional.” I went and bought everything. I’m not very tech-savvy. He basically was on the phone helping me how to plug everything in. I did my first stream. Man, I’m trying to remember how long it was until I hit Partner. It was all pretty fast. It definitely did happen really fast where I hit affiliate, and then I just kept growing, growing, growing. The next thing I know, here I am!
Tubefilter: Amazing. How long ago was that?
ClaraAtWork: I believe I started streaming four years ago.
Tubefilter: Who do you main in Apex?
ClaraAtWork: I main Lifeline.
Tubefilter: Oh man. A Wifeline. Very dedicated.
ClaraAtWork: I didn’t always start out as Lifeline. When I first started playing, I always played Pathfinder because I just thought he was really cute and the voice lines he would say. Back then, I just was not good. I would just walk around. I was like a little Pathfinder and be cute. Then it switched I think– I don’t remember after Pathfinder. I think once I started like, “Okay, I’m going to actually try to get really good at this game and stuff like that.” I think I started playing Bloodhound and Wraith and legends like that. Then finally, once I got to a level where I was like, “Okay, I’m not pro player, but I’m not I’m not bad,” I was just trying to think of something that could make me stand out. Nobody at the time was showing any love to Lifeline anymore because she had just been nerfed so hard. I was like, “You know what? I’m going to be different. I’m going to play Lifeline.”
Tubefilter: Hell yes.
ClaraAtWork: I just made that my thing. Now, most people, you see a Lifeline like, “Oh, gosh, I have a Lifeline on my team.” When they see me, they’re like, “Oh, yes, we got the Lifeline.”
Tubefilter: The Lifeline.
ClaraAtWork: “We’re going to be good. We have the Lifeline.”
Tubefilter: I hear she’s in line for a rework. The next one to get the Rev treatment.
ClaraAtWork: I hope so. They talk about a rework, but I feel like they’ve also been talking about it for a long time. I won’t believe it until I see it. I’ve played other legends, but I always go back to her. I just love her.
Tubefilter: What other games do you play?
ClaraAtWork: Yes. I just recently started diving into more of variety. Especially within the last month. I was joking about it yesterday, how I ended my 27-day sobriety from Apex because I played the new mode again. I definitely took a good break from it and was trying to dive into some other things. I’ve been doing a lot of IRL streaming. Recently, we did a rage room where me and my friend went and just broke a bunch of glass and had a lot of fun. He’s from Germany, so he’s never had In-N-Out. I took him to have that for his first time.
Just doing a lot of IRL streaming, which I think is fun and gives my community more of me and just getting to hang out with me and just seeing more of me and my personality. I’ve been really loving that. I recently got into GTA RP. I’ve never done that before, so it’s been really new for me. Everybody being so in character helps me way more feel comfortable, feel like, “Okay, I’m not Clara. I’m my character, Chloe.” That’s been a lot of fun. Then just been dabbling in some single-player games. I played Life is Strange recently. I’ve been playing Warzone 2 every now and then.
Tubefilter: Interesting. Any particular reason you decided to mix in variety?
ClaraAtWork: When I first started streaming, obviously I started with Apex, and that’s all I really knew. I only really knew the Apex category. As I started diving more into Twitch and seeing, “Okay, what are other people doing? What do people stream?” That’s when I realized that IRL streaming is a thing, more variety, not sticking to one game. I definitely see myself going down that road of being more of a variety streamer or IRL streamer, because I just think that there’s more opportunity for growth, and there’s more opportunity for meeting more community and being able to influence other communities in a sense.
That was something that I’m like, “Okay, I feel like I’ve done a lot in Apex. How can I help more in other areas?” Right? That’s one thing. Then also I saw a lot of fun with it. Having a nice break from the game that you play every single day for five years, it’s refreshing.
Tubefilter: I do know that some streamers, if they have been playing one game for so long and their audience knows them for one game for so long, they struggle to have their audience follow them to other variety stuff. Do you feel like you’ve had that problem?
ClaraAtWork: It definitely depends on which game I’m playing. If it’s gaming-wise, let’s say I switched to Warzone, yes, I do feel like the numbers will drop. I would say a majority of them stick around almost maybe 90% because they just enjoy hanging out with me, watching me. Even if I play a new game for the first time, they want to see me struggle and not just run down the lobby and have a good time. They want to see me struggle a little bit and see the challenges that I also face in other games. Then also the fun games that I play. Sometimes I’ll play some scary games, and they want to see me get scared. What I’ve noticed so far with the IRL content and RP, it’s only been growing, and it’s been helping a lot.
Tubefilter: That’s good.
ClaraAtWork: It makes me happy!
Tubefilter: The most important thing!
ClaraAtWork: It’s really scary. My chat has been talking for years about, “We want variety, Clara. Play something new.” They’ve been wanting this, but it’s always hard to step away. Especially when your numbers doing so well with where you are, it’s struggling to like, “Okay, what if I go do something else and I fail?”
Tubefilter: It’s great that they’re so vocally supportive though.
ClaraAtWork: No, they’re very supportive. That’s definitely the biggest thing that I’m proud of is the community that I’ve built and how supportive and kind they are.
Tubefilter: I’d like to hear a little bit more about that, because certainly, anybody who’s not a dude has a difficult time. When you said your friend suggested that, “Oh, you can try playing Apex. You don’t have to be an expert at it,” I was like, “That is so brave.”
ClaraAtWork: Yes. [laughs]
Tubefilter: I’d love to hear a little bit more about your community.
ClaraAtWork: I don’t know. When I first started streaming, it was just really small community, really close-knit. We would sit in Discord together, and we would have movie nights. We would do discord parties where we’d all– This was during COVID time where we’d do the discord parties, and we’d all just hang out, have a couple of drinks, share music with one another. Just do stuff like that. From doing those kind of things, it made us a lot closer. Obviously, as I’ve grown more, I’ve realized that I can’t be as close as my community as I was in the past because, internet, you just don’t know who you’re always talking to kind of thing.
I’ve had to find ways to be close to my community but also make sure that there’s a line, and that line doesn’t get crossed and for me to feel comfortable. A lot of my community, if you look, they’re starting to get to 40 months subs, stuff like that. They’ve hung around for a really, really long time. I think it’s just because they just like me. They just like my personality, what I do on stream and stuff like that.
Tubefilter: You started as a mod, and clearly, now you have your own mods. I’d like to hear about the importance of mods from your perspective.
ClaraAtWork: Mods! I always tell them, every single day. I’m like, “If it wasn’t for you guys, I would not be here.” I would not be able to figure out all this streaming and everything. They do more than people realize. I have one mod, his name’s Panda. He really just does everything. If I have a sponsor thing coming up, he will take all the information for the sponsored thing and create the commands and set timers and set the title and stuff like that. If people are not being cool within the community, then he goes out of his way to be like, “Hey, that’s not cool. You either need to chill out, or you’re not going to be allowed in this chat anymore.”
They really just make sure all in all of that, everyone’s friendly, everyone’s having a good time, it’s not being taken too seriously. That’s what they do. They just make sure that the chat is just having a good time. I feel like that also helps, too, with making sure that the chat’s having fun. Sometimes you’ll watch a streamer, and you can love the streamer. I feel like their community and their chat is what really makes it as well. You can really just fall more in love with the streamer because of their chat.
Tubefilter: 100% agreed. I often find that the community will mimic or will fall in line with a creator’s welcoming attitude. It definitely does help.
ClaraAtWork: It’s just really welcoming. You feel like you’re actually welcomed and wanted there.
Tubefilter: Yes, definitely. What is your current stream schedule like?
ClaraAtWork: It’s a work in progress. I try to be live around noon, central time, but some things come up, and sometimes weeks are busy.
Tubefilter: You stream every day?
ClaraAtWork: Yes. I stream every single day. Every now and then, either I have appointments or stuff like that where I can’t stream, or I wake up that morning, and I’m like, “Okay, I need a day off.” Because I don’t schedule a day off. I just wake up one day, and I’m really, really tired after streaming every single day. I try to stream at least eight hours a day if possible. Sometimes I will wake up, and I’m just so exhausted that I’m like, “Okay, yes, I need a day off. I need to reset the whole house, clean, get everything done that I’ve been neglecting for the past couple of days.”
Tubefilter: Why do you try to stream at least eight hours?
ClaraAtWork: Honestly, I don’t know. It just happened like that. I feel like if I’m not taking it seriously and putting in the same amount of work as you would at a real job, then it’s not going to– You have to be putting in the work is how I feel. As long as I’m working hard, really dedicated, I feel like eight hours is a really long time. It’s a good like shift. That’s how I see it, is like, “Okay, as long as I get to the eight–” Sometimes I’ll cut it to six. Eight is what I try to aim for.
Tubefilter: Got you. You started with a base community already from you having been a mod and having been involved in other streamers’ communities, but I was curious how you feel about your ability to grow an audience on Twitch. Do you feel like it’s still tough these days? Do you feel like it’s been better?
ClaraAtWork: I feel like it’s definitely still tough. That’s why I always tell people like, “The best way to grow is for using your content from Twitch and posting it on every social media possible.” Making sure you’re posting on TikTok, YouTube, Instagram. Everywhere that you can post your content, you should be posting it, because I feel like that is the best way to help grow your community.
Tubefilter: What has been your number one factor in growing your audience?
ClaraAtWork: I feel like what’s really helped me grow the most is– I don’t know if I mentioned this before earlier, but when I first started streaming, I told you like, I was just having fun, this, this and that. Then when I was like, “Okay, I want to take this more seriously.” I would go start to watch other streamers and see like, “Okay, the big streamers, what are they doing? How are they behaving?” Stuff like that.
For a while, I thought I had to behave a certain way and act a certain way in order to grow and be a successful streamer. I realized that that’s really just not it, and I had to be myself. Once I just really was like, “You know what? Whatever. Who cares about having to be the best, having to be the best Apex player, having to prove myself? I’m just going to have fun. I’m just going to be myself, have fun, if I’m sitting there screaming, dying for six hours, eight hours straight, then that’s what happens, but at least I’m going to have a good time doing it.”
I really feel especially with the Apex community, that’s definitely set me apart. There was a Reddit thread recently, I think like two, three months ago, where they were asking, “Hey, I’m new to new to the Apex community, new to Twitch, wanted to see if there were any Apex female pros that I should watch?” If you look through the thread, they’re like, “Listen, she’s not a pro, but she’s really fun to watch. Go check out ClaraAtWork.” I was probably the most recommended person to watch.
Tubefilter: Oh, that’s very cool.
ClaraAtWork: It warmed my heart to see everyone’s comments about being like, “Oh, she’s really fun, really entertaining. She’s good. Obviously, she’s going to make her mistakes, and it makes it feel more relatable.”
Tubefilter: That’s so important. We can’t all be Aceu. We’re not all going to hit every Wingman shot every time.
ClaraAtWork: I feel like Aceu, Timmy, they’re just like one in millions. Nobody is going to touch them.
Tubefilter: Definitely. I know you streamed with LuluLuvely recently.
ClaraAtWork: Yes. We stream often together. She’s very fun. It’s funny, they always talk about our balance together because she’s the rage queen, and then you come to me, and I’m just like, “Let’s have a good time.” Everyone likes to talk about how we balance each other out.
Tubefilter: That is a stunning power of yours because I try to go in with the “have fun first” mindset, but it can be a little tough, especially if you’re playing marathon hours of Apex. How do you keep up your positivity?
ClaraAtWork: People ask me that a lot recently. They’re like, “How are you so positive? I don’t think I’ve ever seen you rage playing this game.” I’m just like, “I don’t know. I’m genuinely just grateful that I get to do this every day, that I get to sit here and be able to stream and hang out with my community.” I always say that my bad stream days are the days where I wasn’t having a good time Where I’m just not as interactive, a little more pouty, that I’m like, “It’s a bad stream day.” Those are really rare.
Even when I think that I’m having a bad stream day, my chat’s like, “You’re crazy. What do you mean? Go back and watch the bot. You were having fun the whole time.” In my head I’m mentally destroyed. I just think the fact that I’m actually just sitting here really grateful for my community, really grateful that I get to do this, and the fact that I also just want to make an impact.
I feel like if people see me being more positive, then maybe they’ll be like a tiny bit more positive or have a different outlook trying to play the game. I feel like most people you go watch, a lot of the bigger streamers, they’re just mad and raging and upset. I’m like, “It’s cool for him. He can do that. He’s the best player of the world.” Everyday players, casuals, whatever should be having a good time.
Tubefilter: That’s something we need for sure. Do you have any plans or goals or aspirations for this year? Things you’re looking forward to, any projects you’re working on?
ClaraAtWork: Goal for this year is definitely to grow more within the variety and getting more into those communities. Just because one of the biggest things I’ve always talked with streaming, it’s what I do right now with Apex, is just, I want to be a positive influence, and I want to just spread more joy and stuff like that. That’s one of my bigger goals for 2024, is just to help grow more and just influence other communities in a positive way.
