“I didn’t think I’d be a content creator at all, but ever since I started doing it it changed who I am as a person,” Gomez said in a phone interview with Lifewire. “It made me a better person and helped me break out of my shell. I’ve made so many connections and touched so many people it’s just crazy.” In two years, Gomez’s online brand has skyrocketed on Facebook’s relatively new gaming vertical: she’s pulled in over 120,000 followers in that short timeframe. Beginning as a Fortnite streamer, her congenial and animated streams have attracted the attention of the unique Facebook streaming audience, and has become her primary source of income as she juggles her roles as a wife and mother.
Growing Up Golden
Raised by a single mother on the sunny shores of the Golden Coast, Gomez and her family moved from New York to California when she was just a baby. Her mother, she said, was an “Amerasian,” which she defined as the child of a multiethnic family—specifically, one Asian parent and one American parent. Gomez recalls growing up in a very busy household with a mother who worked several jobs to keep a roof over her and her brother’s heads. Life was great, but it wasn’t easy for the two siblings. She and her older brother were able to find a digital escape. like many kids of the time, in the wonderful world of high-speed internet, gaming consoles, and handheld devices. “All me and my brother had was each other and video games,” the streamer said, referring to a house with little parental supervision. It became her preferred pastime after school, when the two siblings would spend time at local LAN gaming centers playing games like Counterstrike and Starcraft with other latchkey kids. “I was just a little girl, but I used to be on top of the leaderboard all the time and people would be like ‘who’s this?’ I never said anything at the time because I was shy, but it felt good to [know] that was me,” she said.
From Nurse to Gamer
Gaming remained a significant part of Gomez’s life throughout her adolescence and early adulthood, but it wasn’t until she met her husband that streaming came into the picture. “The only thing that was consistent in my life was video games,” she said. “I’ve been playing games my whole life, even before I gave birth and during school. It’s always been something I’ve enjoyed doing.” After Facebook Gaming debuted in 2018, Gomez took notice. Complete with a slew of new features and a massive built-in, uniquely socially optimized audience, the platform became her streaming hobby. Her husband was a hobbyist streamer “on another live streaming platform,” she said. However, he never averaged more than a few viewers. After he was deployed to Turkey, she borrowed his streaming setup and decided to delve into the world of Facebook streaming. Initially, he was her only viewer, but over time, more people started funneling into her streams and connecting with her affable personality. Gomez was on the rise on the emerging streaming service. Within a year. she made Facebook Partner after flying out to the annual PAX gaming culture convention, where a Facebook intermediary disclosed their desire to partner with the budding streamer. From there, she saw massive growth, and realized this was more than a blip, but instead a legitimate career path. “I realized it doesn’t end here. This was the start of growing my community and moving forward,” Gomez said. She was studying to be a nurse while juggling life as a mom and wife before her streaming hobby became lucrative. As her cache continues to grow, Gomez is looking to expand her reach via other social media platforms, hoping to capture new audiences. She cites successful streamers like YouTuber Valkyrae as sources of inspiration, giving her a glimpse at what female streamers can become with dedication and hard work. “Video games were my escape, so for me to be somebody else’s escape means a lot to me,” she said. “I just want people to be inspired that if you set your heart and mind to it that you can be successful.”
