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.
When Riss was 10 years old, she told her parents she wanted to draw for a living.
Good news: They were also artistically inclined, and her dream was “quickly embraced,” she says. She got serious about it in high school, and eventually went to art school for a degree in illustration and graphic design. But she wanted to do more than get a degree, so in 2007, she launched an Etsy page and started selling commissioned art pieces and handmade clay charms. By 2010, the shop was making enough to become Riss’s full-time job. So, that year, she officially turned her brand Tasty Peach into a company.
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Since then, Tasty Peach has grown to a massive digital and brick-and-mortar presence that sells hundreds of products (like their signature Meowchi plushies) with major partners like Funko, Hot Topic, Aurora World, and Bioworld.
It also has booths at more than 80 anime conventions every year–and that’s how Riss got into streaming.
“I missed my community,” she says. “When I started my business, I was at my booth for five years solid, and it started getting really, really, really big. The demand for my time got harder, like to be able to go to shows, to meet my fans, to sell at my own booth, to interact with the people that loved my work.”
She got reliable advice that Twitch was a way for her to maintain that connection with her fans: “A friend of mine had told me, ‘Well, you can draw on stream. You can do that. You can go and just create and do all the things that you do for work anyway, and just share it with the world that you miss,'” she says. “My husband has told me that, ‘You talk so much when you game anyways, you may as well put all of those wonderful things you laugh and joke about out on the internet, see what happens.’ With the encouragement of both of them, I started my Twitch page, and yes, it just brought me all here.”
“Here” is where she’s Kaimeriss: VTuber, business owner, and our latest Streamer on the Rise.
Check out our chat with her below.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Tubefilter: Very excited to get to meet you. I know you just had your model launch for your 2.0 model. I’d love to hear a little bit about that and your decision to redesign.
Kaimeriss: Absolutely. My 2.0 launch was this past Saturday. I really had a great time. There was a lot of energy. The main reason was that it was a two-and-a-half-year process of really wanting to nail down my vision of what I really wanted to present myself as.
Tubefilter: Two and a half years. How long did you have your previous model?
Kaimeriss: My previous model came out in 2021. I believe it was March 21 or March 22. Roughly six months after, I decided that as much as I loved the original iteration, it just felt too young for me and I wanted to go with something that really translated both my artstyle and the work that I put in. I found some amazing artists and amazing riggers to work with to bring everything to life.
Tubefilter: For anybody who’s not familiar and hasn’t watched the model creation and rigging process from behind the scenes, can you talk a little bit about the process of getting an artist, getting a rigger, the differences between them, that kind of thing?
Kaimeriss: Absolutely. I actually went through three different artists before I found the one to put it all together. The typical process is some people, they’re not artists themselves, so they don’t necessarily have a idea or a rendition or sketches of what they’re wanting. Since I am an artist, I went to each one of them with my sketches, my concepts, and designs. When I found the right one to work with, they took those, they rendered them in a much more clean version, so it’s not all sketchy. It’s drawn in a super huge canvas. You can zoom in on really, really tiny bits to cut them apart.
You have a finished illustration that then gets cut into every single little piece. Every part of the hair, the eyes, every color in the eyes, the mouth, they’re all individual layers and pieces that get cut to be sent to a rigger. The rigger takes all of them, puts them together almost like a paper doll. They are the ones who are responsible for putting the bones, movement, and physics to the model. Together they create, well, this.
Tubefilter: Very cool. I’ve watched rigging from inside and it’s incredible, the amount of moving pieces. Every individual strand of hair sometimes is rigged separately.
Kaimeriss: Yes! I have a very close relationship with both my artist and my rigger, and my rigger specifically would show me all the little pieces that she went through and did. That way, if I turn my head, it looks more 3D, versus like a lot of the more flat looks that you see with Live2D. There’s so many different iterations that are brand new technology-wise that allow for a 2D model to look a little bit more 3D or full-formed.
Tubefilter: Do you have lore for your model?
Kaimeriss: Yes, I do. I do. I have a little bit of a background. Let me pull it up. The main story behind her is that she has a bit of memory loss. There are fragments of memory, but when it comes to the full scope of her as a character, we have a little bit of a lore story. Kaimeriss is the final keeper of a celestial world known as Villa Luna. She awakens within the fragmented remains of her beloved home, swallowed alongside by a supermassive black hole. Dreams that she had reverberated through the void as she desperately tried to rewrite her star’s fate.
A weakened form was broadcasted for pleas for help or anyone with the technology to listen. She was considered a mere shadow of her true self. When she broke free from the supermassive black hole’s crushing grip, she set her sights on Earth, determined to reclaim lost memories and embrace both sides of a conflicting nature, which chimeras have. She is known to have the backings of a paragon keeper, seeking redemption for all of her failures in her past, and the darkness of a looming, void-forged world-eater to become the final boss of this current world.
Tubefilter: Hell yeah. I love strong OC backgrounds.
Kaimeriss: Thank you so much.
Tubefilter: I got a little bit ahead of myself, out of my usual interview pattern. I would love to hear a little bit about you, where you’re from, and what your life was like before you started VTubing. I’m not sure how private you are, so just whatever you feel comfortable answering.
Kaimeriss: Absolutely. Just so you know, I am quite open about the individual behind the model, because I originally started face-camming with my streaming. I started streaming on Twitch seven years ago. I started in northern Indiana. I’m in the Midwest. I’ve moved since then but I’m in the Midwest. I am still very much an artist.
I’m a professional artist and designer, and so I love to create, I love to draw, but when I was face-camming, it was all under my work. I wanted to give myself something that didn’t necessarily have somebody coming in and saying, “Oh, you’re tired,” or, “Oh, are you upset?” or, “Oh, you look really sleepy today,” or, “Oh, you didn’t have makeup on.”
I decided that I wanted to VTube mainly to allow myself the freedom to exist as a person without the pressures of what is going to show up on camera being judged, per se. I openly talk about this on my stream. I am an individual with autism. I am also ADHD, and so I’m very much embracing both of those aspects of myself. VTubing is a way for me to 100% unmask, be a person, exist as I should, and allow myself to be creative in a space that I feel safe in and allow me to create in a community that I love.
Tubefilter: I completely understand. For those same reasons, I frequently have my own camera off, like I do right now.
Kaimeriss: Oh, I can absolutely relate.
Tubefilter: What drew you to streaming in the first place?
Kaimeriss: Honestly, I missed my community. When I started my business, I was at my booth for five years solid, and it started getting really, really, really big. The demand for my time got harder, like to be able to go to shows, to meet my fans, to sell at my own booth, to interact with the people that loved my work.
A friend of mine had told me, “Well, you can draw on stream. You can do that. You can go and just create and do all the things that you do for work anyway, and just share it with the world that you miss.” My husband has told me that, “You talk so much when you game anyways, you may as well put all of those wonderful things you laugh and joke about out on the internet, see what happens.” With the encouragement of both of them, I started my Twitch page, and yes, it just brought me all here.
Tubefilter: I’d love to hear a little bit about your audience growth. Is there anything in particular you’ve noticed has helped you grow your audience?
Kaimeriss: Yes, so a lot of what I’ve noticed with my audience growth is people have told me they feel welcomed in my space, or that I have genuine interactivity. I know that Twitch can be really hard because it’s such a numbers-based space. When you are competing against every other individual in a little square, in a giant category, it can be really, really hard. I believe it’s roughly 15 seconds that you have to impress somebody before they just leave.
I guess one of the charming things that I like most about my space is that I don’t stop talking. I just don’t stop. You can’t shut me up. I don’t know if that’s been a good thing, or if that’s really what’s brought people in. I’ve noticed that a lot of my growth has come from a lot of my exciting moments or constant talking and wanting to get to know my community. I know so many of their names and what they love and ask them how they’re doing, or I remember little bits and pieces to try and make it a little bit more personal.
Tubefilter: How many active people in chat do you have per stream?
Kaimeriss: Per stream, active chatters? Oh, gosh. I would say 40 to 50 active chatters and quite a few lurkers that just sit in the background.
Tubefilter: Interesting. You’re quite the variety streamer. You do art, you do just chatting, and you’ve done several games. I know you’ve been playing Cult of the Lamb pretty regularly, which is one of my favorite games. Very good.
Kaimeriss: It’s so good.
Tubefilter: It’s so good. I haven’t played the new expansion yet, but I’m ready to go.
Kaimeriss: It’s good. It’s good. I started a whole new file just for this one.
Tubefilter: Okay. I’ll have to play it. Do you have a set schedule per week where you’re like, “I do art on Mondays,” or do you bounce back and forth? How do you manage your variety schedule?
Kaimeriss: It’s really honestly, whatever the flow of my interest is. I am unfortunately beholden to my ADHD. If something doesn’t feel shiny that week, I just go with the flow. I try to have at least two art streams a month. Usually when I’m feeling really creative, I’ll just toss one in. I have one tomorrow, actually.
When it comes to games, it’s really the same thing. Whatever my heart tells me, “Hey, go do this today.” It might not be the best for growth all the time. There’s different ways to do it. if I really want to play a game that might have a dead category on Twitch, I find a way to turn it into an event or a challenge. Because you can stream pretty much anything in the special events category, as long as it meets the fact that it’s a special event or some sort of challenge. I like to push that envelope.
Tubefilter: Very cool. Do you have a set streaming schedule in terms of like, you go live on X number of days?
Kaimeriss: Yes, actually I do. Right now I stream every Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday at 1:00 PM Central time.
Tubefilter: Is there a particular reason that you chose that time?
Kaimeriss: It’s a really good middle ground for a lot of different time zones. I know that for some people, it’s like during the week for work, but a lot of people that watch my stream, if they’re at work, they lurk. If they are available to chat, they’re usually chatting, asking questions. It’s a good time for me because it allows me to get all of my busy work done in the morning that can stress me out, gives me that boost in the afternoon during stream days to be creative, and then usually I do a lot of my work at night. I typically have a four-, maybe five-hour stream, and then I’ll work for three or four hours after because I’m just supercharged from my special interests.
Tubefilter: You said you’re a working artist and designer right now.
Kaimeriss: Yes. I run my own business and I’m globally licensed.
Tubefilter: I’d love to hear a little bit more about Tasty Peach.
Kaimeriss: Absolutely. Tasty Peach, it was first started in 2010, and it’s a dream that I’ve had since I was very little. When I was about 10 years old, I told my parents I wanted to be an artist and it was quickly embraced. I come from a family that has a lot of different artistic talents in various spaces, and mine just happened to be drawing. It was something that I had always dreamed of and later on, in high school, took seriously. Eventually went to school for it, that way I could hone those skills.
A lot of my art is self-taught, but I always look for more ways to learn. I’m constantly hungry to educate myself when it comes to art or any of my interests. We started in 2010, and I’ve been going strong ever since. About five years ago I was licensed, and I’ve been working with a lot of wonderful companies to bring a my work just to the entire world.
Tubefilter: Can you tell me a little bit more about the kinds of companies you work with and the kinds of work you do?
Kaimeriss: Absolutely. Aurora World is my master plush licensee. All of my plush toys come from Aurora World. Then I work with spaces like Bioworld for additional items. Goodie Two Sleeves. They do a lot of my apparel. I work a lot with Hot Topic. If you walk into a Hot Topic or a BoxLunch anywhere in the U.S., you’re going to see my Meowchis everywhere.
Those are, those are the main ones. Then I do a lot of my own manufacturing, my own production, do a lot of my own exclusives. I had a Funko Pop line with Funko. Those are some of the biggest ones.
Tubefilter: Usually it’s the other way around, where somebody who’s streaming launches a business after they grow an audience on the internet. You did this first. That’s very cool.
Kaimeriss: I was very fortunate. I laugh all the time, because when I speak with people about it, I always talk about how I did everything backwards. I had no entertainment for my business, but it launched because people loved my characters. I had no rhyme or reason for my streaming outside of missing people, and it turned out like this. I tend to do things backwards.
Tubefilter: It works out!
Kaimeriss: Yes!
Tubefilter: For Tasty Peach, how many people are on the team?
Kaimeriss: Let’s see. It’s me and my husband and three core members. We are a team of five strong.
Tubefilter: You said you work in the evenings. It sounds like you really get a creative boost after you stream, after that sort of interaction. I’m really curious how streaming has helped contribute to your overall creativity.
Kaimeriss: Absolutely. For me personally, I joke that I’m an “energy vampire,” because I feed off the energy that my stream gives me. The more exciting, chaotic, laughing, endorphins-filled stream I have, the more creative I usually am at night. I never stop creating. It doesn’t just turn off. I’m creative as much as I breathe air, but there is something about sharing those memories and times with people that sometimes brings forth the best in me. To be honest, a lot of my best work comes from interacting with my community. When I get the chance to have genuine time with them, I always create my best work.
Tubefilter: Are there any sort of legal challenges with streaming art that you do for Tasty Peach?
Kaimeriss: Not necessarily. If I decide to stream any of my Tasty Peach art, I stay within my NDAs. if I have something that I’m not supposed to share, it always stays under lock and key. My master plush licensee, they encourage me to get my audience’s feedback. That way we can always create products that I know my fans want. Most of the work that I’ll do, however, are things like my enamel pins or private line. Things that might turn into plushes later, but I know for a fact are not under any form of NDA because I’m going to produce it myself, usually.
Tubefilter: Interesting. How significant of a role does audience feedback play in what you design?
Kaimeriss: Quite a bit, actually. Most of what I like to put out there are my ideas, my thought processes, but I love to have brainstorm sessions with my audience. At least once a quarter, I will have a brainstorm sketch stream and we’ll just throw anything out into the void and start picking up little ideas.
For instance, I sketched all of these, I call them “scuff Meowchis,” because they’re just like these little messy doodles. They don’t have any real form to them. They’re a mess. You look at them and they look like they should be in a child’s coloring book because they’re so messy. They are some of the most freeform ideas that go out there. I had somebody say, “Well, what if one was an eggplant?” or “What if one of them was a corndog?”
We just did this line of 25 different food themes, and about six of them are being turned into plush. I’m submitting half of them to my vinyl toy person because I just signed a vinyl toy deal. It’s a lot of things that come from my audience that inspire me that I take and I just roll with it and have fun.
Tubefilter: How did you end up working with Funko? That’s pretty huge.
Kaimeriss: This is actually a really funny story. About two years before I got licensed, I was at New York Toy Fair and I had a style guide and a design guide that I had put together. This was before I had any form of representation. I just walked up to the Funko booth and I asked to talk to their licensing management or their licensing coordinator. I said hi, I talked to them for five minutes, I handed them my style guide and I left.
When I got licensed and signed in with an agency, they called them.
Tubefilter: Oh, wow.
Kaimeriss: It was actually really interesting. I was nervous. I was terrified, just walking into a space like that. I believed in myself and I did the thing.
Tubefilter: You did the thing.
Kaimeriss: I just handed them that.
Tubefilter: It’s very intimidating, but it did pay off. That’s huge. I know you have NDAs to consider, but any cool upcoming projects or plans you have?
Kaimeriss: Oh, yes. I just approved a line of 30 brand new plushes that are coming out over the next year and a half. I have quite a few new event streams that I’m planning right now. Then I’m working on a 2.0 merch line for my summer release, which I’m really excited for. I’m hoping to have one of my first meet-and-greets at OffKai Expo, which is at the end of May.
Tubefilter: What’s going into the process of arranging for a meet and greet?
Kaimeriss: OffKai Expo, it’s a VTuber convention, and I’m working with V-Oshi. V-Oshi is one of the merchants. They create VTuber merchandise. They’re going to be boothing there. They have a screen setup to where I can go and do a meet and greet virtually. Since I’m also attending, I’m doing both a physical and a virtual meet and greet using their system.
Tubefilter: That technology is so cool.
Kaimeriss: It’s really cool. I wish more places had it, honestly.
Tubefilter: I feel like we’re moving toward it. I just spoke to Ironmouse right after the Streamer Awards. The fact that she was able to attend, that they made arrangements for her to be able to attend, I feel like we’re moving in that direction where we have more accessibility and more privacy for VTubers. But it’s definitely still, a lot of places just don’t have it.
Kaimeriss: Unfortunately, but I’m so glad Mousey got to go. I really look up to her, honestly.
Tubefilter: She’s definitely cool. Every time I talk to her, she’s always got such an interesting perspective on the whole industry. Is there anything else you want to talk about, anything else you want people to know about you or about VTubing in general?
Kaimeriss: Oh man. I’m thankful because VTubing is allowing me to be my whole self where I would sometimes have to constantly be masking and keeping up that smile on camera. It’s exhausting. With my VTuber, I always get a chance to look how I feel on the inside, even if on the outside I’m very blank or unable to express those emotions. I’m able to do so because the technology exists for me to show even more of myself. I’m just really thankful that VTubing even exists.
Tubefilter: Do you have any advice for somebody who would like to get into VTubing?
Kaimeriss: Start with a PNGTuber, because PNGTubers are valid. There’s such a debate on whether PNGTubers are actually VTubers. I personally feel that it’s a valid way to start. I don’t believe that anybody needs to go out there and spend thousands of dollars on a model or even hundreds on a model if they don’t know if they like content creation or streaming.
If somebody is new and wants to break in, don’t spend a lot of money. Start with putting the personality out there. You can PNGTube and keep people entertained and excited, because at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter how pretty the model is. If you can’t keep people there or if you don’t like it, you’re going to waste your money. I don’t want anyone to spend that level of money just to find out in three months that they hate it.
Kaimeriss is repped by Viral Nation.
