Gaming
Games
Escaping reality: How Twitch streamer Tiffae found purpose through gaming
Tiffae’s career in streaming has evolved year on year. Read on to hear the American gamer's story about her journey to get where she is today.
01
Discovering a passion for gaming
2012: College student Tiffanie Hsu is seen rushing out of her university class, simultaneously checking messages and missed calls from family and friends as she begins prepping the mental shift from being a student, straight into waitress mode. Throughout this entire fast-paced stretch of constant work, there wasn’t much to think about every day other than feeling lost and unhappy with her current path.
As a student, Tiffae packed in studying, waitressing and streaming
© Marv Watson/Red Bull Content Pool
Gaming was always my escape from reality
“At the time, I was struggling because I was in school working full-time and wasn’t passionate about anything,” Tiffae shared about her life before streaming. “I was miserable because I was not enjoying school then and constantly worried about money and what my future would look like."
It was an honest conversation about being lost during this period in her life. Tiffae’s schedule was jam-packed working long nights as a waitress while balancing her studies as a full-time college student. Yet, through all this stress, gaming was always that constant in her life that brought her happiness.
The idea of being able to be myself and play games is what got me initially interested in streaming
“Gaming was always my escape from reality,” TIffae said. “I remember just playing games in whatever time I had because it just made me happy. It was a hobby of mine that brought me a lot of joy.”
This natural passion for gaming eventually transformed into a love for streaming back in 2012 when Twitch was in its early days. She remembered being inspired by female streamers like Becca and Hafu, because of their ability to be honest on stream.
Whether competing or streaming, Tiffae's at her happiest when she's gaming
© Kena Krutsinger / Red Bull Content Pool
“Seeing these lovely ladies popping off by doing their thing and enjoying themselves stood out to me,” Tiffae shared. “I always had this love for gaming, and the idea of being able to be myself and play games is what got me initially interested in streaming.”
At first, streaming was purely something she was doing for fun. There was no money involved nor were there any other incentives apart from it bringing her immense joy to her busy life. She continued that every day, where she would begin to notice her stream starting to grow and viewership and eventually start to be able to turn that hobby into a secondary source of income.
02
Converting a hobby to a full-time career
Every parent wants their kid to be safe. They want to make sure that they have a secure job with a steady income so they don't have to worry about survival. As a result, the initial discussion between Tiffae and her parents about becoming a full-time streamer was met with much pushback at the start.
“When I first started streaming full-time, my parents didn’t believe it at all,” Tiffae shared. “They told me that I was wasting my time and should be going to school because streaming can’t put money on the table.”
Back then, it was extremely risky to become a streamer because content creation wasn’t a stable career
Truthfully, Tiffae admitted they were right in having their concerns at the switch. At the time, and still, even to this day, streaming isn’t what one would consider a viable career path that provides a lot of stability. For most, that risk does not pay off.
Not just a competitor, Tiffae shares her knowledge to help others learn
© Fabio Piva / Red Bull Content Pool
Yet, despite all of this pushback and noise telling her that it is a “waste of time”, she kept pushing for this career because it was something that no amount of money could buy: happiness.
“There wasn’t anything else in my life that made me as happy or less alone as streaming does for me,” Tiffae said before relaying how much more it adds to her overall growth. “It gave me something productive to do when I was really lost.”
Now, she looks back on those moments very fondly as there is more direction nowadays in her career aspirations.
03
Achieving success as a streamer
Tiffae’s career in streaming was a complete shift from her days working as a waitress and college student. Similar to those earlier days, she remembered multiple 12-hour streaming days and the countless amount of days spent trying to grow on Twitch more. In truth, she was putting in more hours of work compared to her days before she became a streamer. Yet, the difference between the two different workloads was that streaming 12 hours a day was something that was done purely off her own passions and not out of fear.
Tiffae puts in 12-hour (plus!) days, but they're ones filled with joy
© Rick Rodney / Red Bull Content Pool
Now, she is happy that the path to becoming a streamer isn’t as taboo as it was back when she pursued streaming as a full-time career.
“Back then, it was extremely risky to become a streamer because content creation wasn’t a stable career,” Tiffae said. “But now, the generation is evolving to where anything is possible. Some people are innovating and finding unique ways to create content which only inspires me to get better at what I love every day.”
My goal is just to be happy and have a healthy mindset every day
Tiffae's delighted with the direction her streaming career is going
© Rick Rodney / Red Bull Content Pool
When asked what “her primary goal was moving forward in her career,” Tiffae's answer was very simple: to be “happy” and “healthy”.
“My goal is just to be happy and have a healthy mindset every day,” Tiffae said before elaborating more. “I like being able to see what positive impact that has on other people’s lives.”
In 2023, Tiffae’s schedule continues to be busy. She’s gone to Dreamhack in Dallas as part of a Content Creator showdown, taken part in late night VALORANT Champions Tour watch parties - where her org Team Liquid competed in Japan - and even took part in Red Bull New Game’s second episode where she and her friend Pipluptiny squared off against Disguised Toast and Sigils. However, it’s packed with activities that bring her joy. With a supportive group of followers and a career that genuinely brings her “happiness”, Tiffae is ready to move forward into the next phases of her career as a full-time streamer.
