During a recent YouTube stream, Rachell “Valkyrae” Hofstetter, one of the most popular streamers in the world, opened up about some of the horrifying and disturbing things she’s seen and experienced as a streamer. Being in the limelight comes with many obvious pros, but it also comes with a variety of cons, including many of which are never talked about often or given the attention and discussion they deserve, especially in relation to how much the pros are highlighted. According to Valkyrae, there isn’t a thing she hasn’t seen since she began streaming, and this is something she wants those looking to get into Internet fame to know so they can be prepared for what they will inevitably deal with if they make it big.
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“There isn’t something I haven’t seen. I’ve seen everything, okay. I’ve seen it all. You guys want to hear about some of the terrifying things I’ve seen,” said Valkyrae during a recent stream of Valorant. “I have actually seen a porn video of… it’s just two random people, but the title is ‘Valkyrae and Sykkuno doing blah blah blah.” Completely random people. Doesn’t look like either of us, but yeah I’ve seen that.
Valkyrae continued, shedding more light on the horrifying things streamers deal with:
“I’ve seen Twitter pages where they literally are like busting on photos of my friends and me. Yeah, it’s definitely horrifying. It’s horrifying. This is like one huge downside of being on the Internet. It’s like you’re exposed to the crazy people. Like actually exposed to the crazy people. So yeah, be careful, and be safe, be very safe. Like I know a lot of my friends have stalkers, and it’s unfortunate just how common it is. There’s no Internet police. You know, there’s none. It’s crazy. It’s scary, yeah.”
Valkyrae concluded by noting it’s important to share this insight because there are a lot of people who want to get into streaming and become content creators, and these people need to know the negative sides of the profession.
As Valkyrae notes, none of this is very surprising or uncommon, which is a testament to just how depraved and frightening parts of the Internet are. And of course, all popular streamers and Internet personalities experience this to some extent, but it’s especially a problem for female streamers.