WHY WOULD WE STOP GAMING? Ft. Valkyrae | Episode 194

Valkyrae is on the show this week!! Drew and Rae talk revolutionizing the streaming space for women, misspelling your own name, working at GameStop, waiting for the cat distribution system to hit, dealing with insecure men on the Internet, and so much more. Valkyrae IG: https://www.instagram.com/valkyrae/ Valkyrae TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@valkyrae?lang=en Follow The Comment Section on IG! https://www.instagram.com/thecommentsection/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy https://acast.com/privacy for more information.

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Speaker 00

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• 0:32Drew Afualo?

  Says you have one singular naturally red hair on your head.

• 0:36Speaker 02

  How are you even finding these?

• 0:38Drew Afualo?

  Amanda, that one's weird.

• 0:41Speaker 02

  How did you find that? That is, I'm like, this is so hilarious to me.

• 0:46Drew Afualo?

  Me pointing that finger because I'm like, she's making me look weird, but that was her who found that.

• 0:50Speaker 02

  I did say it?

• 0:58Drew Afualo?

  Hey, everyone, and welcome back to another episode of the Comment Section Show, starring me, your fave, everybody knows me, who cares about me. Onto the guest today, we have the iconic, the legendary, the unbelievably talented Valkyrie.

• 1:13Drew Afualo?

  Welcome to the show, Rae.

• 1:14Speaker 02

  I'm so excited. I've, okay, admittedly, I've been a fan of you for so long.

• 1:18Drew Afualo?

  Oh, my God. Thank God. We started rolling. Thank God.

• 1:22Speaker 02

  When I got the invite to be on your pod, I was like, no way. So this is our first time meeting ever in person. But I've been definitely following you for a very long time, and you've made me laugh a lot.

• 1:32Drew Afualo?

  Oh, period. I love that for us. I'm a huge fan of you as well.

• 1:36Speaker 02

  No way.

• 1:37Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, of course, girl. Do you want to hear something absolutely insane? When I first started like growing on TikTok, there was a guy at the gym my fiance was training at, and he was like, hey, are you like into gaming at all? Mind you, like, I started growing like pretty quickly on TikTok, so like my, my man was still working full time at the gym. And he was like, um, not really. Why? And he goes, I, because he was a huge fan of you and Poki.

• 2:03Speaker 02

  Really?

• 2:03Drew Afualo?

  And he was like, I've heard them talk about her. And they'd say like your girlfriend, or because at the time we were just boyfriend and girlfriend. And he was like, yeah, they're like the biggest streamers in the world. And I was familiar with your names, obviously, because y'all are so popular. But I was like, okay, T, I didn't know that. Because he said, did you know that? When he came on, I go, no, I didn't know that. That sounds nice.

• 2:22Speaker 02

  Wow.

• 2:23Drew Afualo?

  Obviously, I had to go and look at y'all. And I was like, period, period, period, follow back, follow back, follow back.

• 2:27Speaker 02

  Oh my gosh, that's crazy to hear. I didn't even know you knew I existed.

• 2:30Drew Afualo?

  And it was a man.

• 2:32Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 2:34Drew Afualo?

  Oh, derogatory.

• 2:34Speaker 02

  Get me out of the gaming space.

• 2:36Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, for real. He was like huge fans of y'all.

• 2:39Speaker 02

  Wait, that's awesome.

• 2:40Drew Afualo?

  They honestly told me, the men told me first, that y'all were fans, which I was honored.

• 2:45Speaker 02

  Wow.

• 2:45Drew Afualo?

  To have two legends in the game.

• 2:47Speaker 02

  Yeah, no, this is like a crazy full circle moment for me.

• 2:49Drew Afualo?

  It is.

• 2:50Speaker 02

  I think that's one of the things that I've struggled to kind of do. Well, I've gotten better over time, but it's like trying to like make friends outside of the gaming space because I do feel like it's such a bubble.

• 3:01Drew Afualo?

  I get it though. Cause a lot of my main friends I met through TikTok too, so I get it.

• 3:05Speaker 02

  Oh, really?

• 3:06Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, I think it's just natural. You kind of commiserate same areas, go to the same events.

• 3:10Speaker 02

  Yeah, exactly.

• 3:11Drew Afualo?

  I think that's natural, yeah.

• 3:12Speaker 02

  Exactly. It just happens. Have you thought about streaming? Like, do you play any games?

• 3:15Drew Afualo?

  I love video games. I do love to play. I have been asked to stream many times. I just don't know, because that's like my one thing that I do like by myself, like, that's like not work related.

• 3:26Speaker 02

  It's like downtime, right?

• 3:27Drew Afualo?

  Right, so I love, I love low, like, I would say, third person like storyline games. So I just got the new Ghost of Yote, like, because I played-

• 3:37Speaker 02

  I heard it was really good.

• 3:37Drew Afualo?

  I beat Ghost of Tsushima a long time ago. I sobbed at the ending, like it was my uncle that was dying. Spoiler alert if you haven't finished.

• 3:44Speaker 02

  Oh, no.

• 3:46Drew Afualo?

  But I love that game. I've told a lot of people to play it, so I bought the new one. I like the Assassin's Creed games. What about you?

• 3:52Speaker 02

  I'm trying to think of like a really good one. Um.

• 3:54Drew Afualo?

  Or what's your favorite thing to stream, I should say?

• 3:56Speaker 02

  So right now, it's like spooky season, and there's been a few like scary games that have come out, and so I pretty, I also, my favorite genre is like those um, story games.

• 4:06Drew Afualo?

  Yeah.

• 4:07Speaker 02

  And so, I literally just beat Silent Hill F yesterday.

• 4:11Drew Afualo?

  Oh, okay.

• 4:12Speaker 02

  It's a scary game, horrifying, like psychological thriller. It's terrifying.

• 4:16Drew Afualo?

  Right.

• 4:17Speaker 02

  I'm screaming the whole time, and it's just- Uh, it's just, it's fun to play. Like, I don't know. It's just, I mean, I've been playing games my whole life and I've been streaming for ten and a half years now. It's gonna be eleven years.

• 4:28Drew Afualo?

  Which is crazy because you're like fifteen, so how does that work?

• 4:30Speaker 02

  Okay, yeah, it's just, I just wanna preface this, I'm thirty-three, which is crazy because you would think I wouldn't be gaming still, right? Because like, I feel like also my generation-

• 4:39Drew Afualo?

  Are you kidding? At the level y'all do it. Hell yeah.

• 4:41Speaker 02

  I know, like, I'm gonna do it forever, obviously. Like, it's been a hobby for my whole life. Why would I stop?

• 4:46Drew Afualo?

  Right.

• 4:46Speaker 02

  Like, I think that's something that people don't realize is that I grew up with gaming. Like, my generation of people had gaming and consoles growing up, so it's like, why would we just stop? Even though it's perceived as like a kid thing, right?

• 4:59Drew Afualo?

  Yeah.

• 4:59Speaker 02

  I think it's changing. I think people are realizing that.

• 5:01Drew Afualo?

  Well, I think people like you have changed that, honestly. I think that makes people wanna play. They're like, actually, I, actually, I can play games and have fun.

• 5:07Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 5:08Drew Afualo?

  It's okay. There's no age on that. That's all right.

• 5:10Speaker 02

  I think the thing, uh, the way I look at it is like, gaming is just another form of entertainment, just like watching TV. Like, for me, it's like interactive television, like-

• 5:18Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, totally.

• 5:19Speaker 02

  It's like watching a story. Like, there's a game called The Last of Us. Like, I'm sure you watched it. Have you seen the show?

• 5:24Drew Afualo?

  Yes, yes, yes.

• 5:25Speaker 02

  Yeah, that's, you know, based off a game.

• 5:26Drew Afualo?

  Yeah.

• 5:27Speaker 02

  And when you play the game, it's like, you get to see this whole dramatic story fall-

• 5:32Drew Afualo?

  I know.

• 5:33Speaker 02

  And you get to play it at the same time, so-

• 5:35Drew Afualo?

  You're braver than me. I can't play the spooky ones.

• 5:38Speaker 02

  I could never off-stream, but I think because I'm streaming, it feels like I'm not alone.

• 5:42Drew Afualo?

  Oh, that's kinda nice.

• 5:43Speaker 02

  You know, there's like people talking in the chat and get to hang out. We get to talk about it and stuff, so-

• 5:48Drew Afualo?

  Right.

• 5:48Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 5:49Drew Afualo?

  Well, that was gonna be my next question, actually, was why, like, what made you wanna start streaming?

• 5:53Speaker 02

  Oh, yes, okay.

• 5:54Drew Afualo?

  Like, what got you into it initially?

• 5:55Speaker 02

  Um, so, eons ago, many, many, many years, um, I grew up in a very broken household. My dad was a mega alcoholic. Um, and he would come home drunk, like, every night and fight with my mom about, like, money and stuff. And so, my mom, she would lock my sister and I in my room and they would just watch me play games. And so, the reason why I got into games in the first place was because I was at a babysitter's house and, like, her daughter had this console. And so, I, we just started playing and I got addicted. It was just like an escape.

• 6:25Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 6:25Speaker 02

  Like, at the end of the day, I do feel like video games are an escape for a lot of people, um, as all- All like creative outlets are. Um, yeah, I just, um, I've been gaming my whole life and then I got a job at GameStop and then I made this Instagram account and I noticed. That when I would post gaming stuff, they would get like more likes and stuff. And so I.

• 6:46Drew Afualo?

  And you're just doing it for the love of the game, like you were just like, yeah.

• 6:48Speaker 02

  Well, I was so lonely and I was also in a very toxic relationship where it was one of those ones where. This is an example that I always share, but um, I remember. Hitting uh fifteen thousand followers, oh no, three thousand followers on my Instagram account and showing my boyfriend at time and I was like, look, isn't this crazy? Like, I feel like. Uh, I could make something out of this. Like I could, like people like this stuff.

• 7:10Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, totally.

• 7:11Speaker 02

  And he straight up told me, he was like, this is embarrassing. Like, don't do this. Like, I, I hate, like, he was, he hated it.

• 7:18Drew Afualo?

  Hater.

• 7:19Speaker 02

  Just, it was.

• 7:21Drew Afualo?

  Well, he sounds like a fucking hater, so that makes sense.

• 7:23Speaker 02

  Oh, yeah, no, he was.

• 7:24Drew Afualo?

  Jealous asshole. Sorry.

• 7:26Speaker 02

  Literally, a lot of my exes. It's embarrassing, it's so embarrassing.

• 7:31Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, because you're stunning gorgeous, smart and also really good at video games and make a lot of money off of it. So, yeah, yeah. For an insecure man, that's kind of kryptonite, you know what I mean?

• 7:39Speaker 02

  Oh, yeah, man, it's, it's crazy looking back because I wish I could go back and shake my old self and be like, get out of this sooner. Cause like, mind you, the same guy like cheated on me and like I got back with him. It's crazy times. Younger Ray was going through it. Um, but yeah, I just, uh, I liked it a lot because I didn't really have. Uh, close friends and so I felt like I was making friends in the gaming community and so I got really addicted to it. And then when I hit about fifteen thousand followers, I heard about Twitch and streaming and that was ten and a half years ago.

• 8:11Drew Afualo?

  And that's hard as fuck ten years ago to get fifteen K ten years ago on Instagram. It's hard as hell.

• 8:16Speaker 02

  Oh, it was back then. When were you on Instagram? Cause remember people would do like the shout out for shout out, like collages?

• 8:23Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, yeah, hell, yeah.

• 8:24Speaker 02

  It was hilarious.

• 8:25Drew Afualo?

  No, I know. I think I, I think I got Instagram when I was in like ninth grade was like the first time. It was like two thousand nine, two thousand ten, so. I was on there, but I was very like, I'm far and few in between. I wasn't really posting much.

• 8:38Speaker 02

  Yeah, it was.

• 8:39Drew Afualo?

  College.

• 8:40Speaker 02

  Very casual and then you start realizing like, oh, is this like a business thing?

• 8:44Drew Afualo?

  I know, hell yeah.

• 8:45Speaker 02

  Is this like helping my business and now it's like, admittedly, I don't post as much as I should as, as much as I have. I used to post every three days. Every three days, I would just like post like a gaming clip or like a selfie or something and um, I mean, I feel like I'm not as much like in tune with social media, especially like nowadays. It's like, you open up Twitter and then you're like closing Twitter.

• 9:06Drew Afualo?

  Oh yeah, I deleted my Twitter a long time ago.

• 9:09Speaker 02

  I am this close.

• 9:10Drew Afualo?

  I, I deleted mine. Well, I deleted mine like well over a year ago, I would say. I think I went out on top to be honest. I, I used to only go on there because, because it is so rancid and vile now. You could say anything. You could say anything, which is true, you could. But that means I could be my absolute meanest on that app. So like when I was fucking up men or women who hate me because they want the attention of men, I could go on Twitter and I could really fuck them up there. Like, so that's why sometimes.

• 9:36Speaker 02

  So you could say what you want.

• 9:38Drew Afualo?

  Right, like what I could without these ties on me, tying me down on TikTok. Once I got those blue check marks, they really stopped letting me say anything I wanted.

• 9:46Speaker 02

  No way.

• 9:46Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, like on TikTok, Instagram too. I've lost my Instagram three times because of like reports and shit like that.

• 9:53Speaker 02

  There, no way.

• 9:55Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, three times. Which is funny because my TikTok, I've lost four times. My Instagram, I've lost three. But my Instagram, the first time I got it back was because there was a girl. I'd been posting on TikTok. Obviously it was after I blew up on TikTok. Men were mass reporting me on all apps and this is before I had any check marks. But then uh, this girl, I had been posting like, yeah, my Instagram's down. So like, if you guys are trying to find me on there, that's why. This girl emailed me from her personal email and she was like, hey, girl, like, just wanted to let you know, I work at Instagram. I know you said you need help. I could probably help you. On the off chance it was real, I was like, I'm gonna take this tip for real because I was like, who knows?

• 10:32Speaker 02

  You might as well take the chance.

• 10:34Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, so then I reached back out to her and then she went in because she said she had a new job lined up and she was leaving in three days. So she literally got my account back, verified me, gave it back to me, then quit. And I was like, period. One thing about, one thing about women, they're gonna do it. for you, you know what I mean?

• 10:51Speaker 02

  Wait, that's a real one.

• 10:52Drew Afualo?

  Right.

• 10:54Speaker 02

  What are you saying that's getting you reported where it's actually deleting your account?

• 10:58Drew Afualo?

  I'm just being hilarious. So like they mass report me and say I'm saying like they.

• 11:04Speaker 02

  Auto like ban you.

• 11:08Speaker 02

  Have to like check it.

• 11:09Drew Afualo?

  Yes. So then that's why it was taking forever because there's only like nine people that work at Meta. So like they have to go through all these requests. It was like taking forever to get it back, but that's why it's just like they have to, they have to like pause you for a second and then.

• 11:21Speaker 02

  And then check it after. I see.

• 11:24Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, but I know you, you're not a stranger at all to men being awful on the internet. I'm sure, especially being on Twitch as long as you have, girl. That's crazy.

• 11:32Speaker 02

  Been a long ride with. On the gaming side thing, because obviously it's male dominated, right? I mean, I think a lot of people don't realize that there are a lot of women that do game. It's not just men, but I do, obviously there's a lot of very vocal men. About how they feel about like a girl being in their space that they're claiming, you know, like this is supposed to be a guy thing, get in the kitchen, woman.

• 11:55Drew Afualo?

  I'm like playing make believe. Women do that all the time. What the fuck are you talking about? We do that all the time. We imagine we have fan fiction. What are you talking about? This is not gender, dummy.

• 12:07Drew Afualo?

  So that's how it kind of started when you first, when did you start noticing you started getting like hate like that?

• 12:12Speaker 02

  I mean.

• 12:13Drew Afualo?

  On Twitch?

• 12:13Speaker 02

  Yeah, on Twitch, um, man, I, I think there was the first game where I started playing where I noticed like a rise in viewership. Like I think, um, one of them being called Until Dawn, I remember I had like six hundred viewers. And it was, it was a lot for me. I was like, whoa, this is kind of crazy. Like where are all these people coming from? And, um, I'm like getting DMs, like that was when my DMs were open. Oh, I shut that shit down years ago.

• 12:40Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, you guys don't, you lost the privilege.

• 12:43Speaker 02

  You just start getting death threats and like stalkers. Like also thinking that they have like they, that you're talking to them through the screen, like you have a relationship with them.

• 12:55Drew Afualo?

  Hoki told me a little bit about that too.

• 12:56Speaker 02

  Yeah, there's just a lot of like.

• 12:58Drew Afualo?

  Parasocial weirdos.

• 12:59Speaker 02

  Parasocial mentally ill people that think that um you know they have something with you it's scary. Yeah, yeah. Like um it just takes like one person to just think that oh you know Ray is inviting me to her place I'm gonna go over there. And I've had someone like literally at the airport and was live tweeting themselves being like if Ray goes to Coachella like this is gonna piss me off she's supposed to pick me up at the airport videotaping himself saying this.

• 13:27Drew Afualo?

  He's saying you were supposed to pick him up.

• 13:29Speaker 02

  I was supposed to pick him up at the airport and that's why he flew in.

• 13:33Drew Afualo?

  And he's like she knows I hate when she's late to pick me up from the airport. That's scary as fuck.

• 13:39Speaker 02

  I mean I guess it comes with the territory. I think um there's just this way about streaming where it's so unfiltered unedited it's live where uh people you know they they can watch you every day twenty four seven and like feel like they know you.

• 13:53Drew Afualo?

  Yeah.

• 13:54Speaker 02

  Like it's like I understand why people get so parasocial with streamers cuz it's just so.

• 13:58Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, that is actually such a good point though like cuz parasocial relationships exist obviously across all platforms but on Twitch specifically because it's live.

• 14:06Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 14:06Drew Afualo?

  It's like different so they're seeing.

• 14:08Speaker 02

  Not edited.

• 14:08Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, so they're seeing you in real time.

• 14:10Speaker 02

  Yes, they see you like you'll be eating your lunch.

• 14:12Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, that's a good point.

• 14:14Speaker 02

  Taking a break or be like okay I'm gonna go use the restroom I'll be right back kinda thing it's like I can't cut out that time while I'm using the restroom like it's just a chair for five minutes you know.

• 14:24Drew Afualo?

  Scary.

• 14:24Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 14:25Drew Afualo?

  Scary as hell. Well, when you did start growing, when did you start getting excited cuz you started making friends and stuff like that like a lot of the real life friends you have now?

• 14:32Speaker 02

  Uh I uh I played a lot of solo games for a really long time and then there is this game called Fortnite which I'm sure you've heard of. Um and that's when I started playing with other people in the space that played so it was like a collaborative thing and I realized like wow collaboration is really good.

• 14:47Drew Afualo?

  Yeah.

• 14:47Speaker 02

  Like people love seeing their favorite creator play with another creator that they like.

• 14:51Drew Afualo?

  Totally.

• 14:51Speaker 02

  The dynamic and um I just like it's like oh wait multiplayer games are really fun and then I'm sure you've heard of the whole Among Us.

• 14:59Drew Afualo?

  Oh, yes. Yeah, that whole thing.

• 15:01Speaker 02

  An anomaly that just shouldn't have happened but it did but that was huge for streamers because. Um, you get like ten streamers in one lobby and you're all playing this mystery game that's easy to watch.

• 15:16Speaker 02

  Like it's a social deduction game, like you try to find the murderer, right? And people love crime videos, so it's just like really entertaining for people to watch.

• 15:26Drew Afualo?

  And then mutually beneficial for all of you.

• 15:28Speaker 02

  Yeah, it was just like everyone was just doing so well after that point, so yeah, I don't know, it just like. I just, I don't know, I just love playing all the games.

• 15:37Drew Afualo?

  I think that's, I think that's really cool. I was gonna ask too, if you've noticed, cause obviously in the last, like, I would say, what, five? Five-ish years, like since covid, since we came out of pandemic, all of that.

• 15:47Speaker 02

  It's been five years, right?

• 15:48Drew Afualo?

  Right, it's insane, but also thinking about how like streaming has really had a huge like uptick in it because people have. I'm sure during the pandemic and stuff, being able to stream from home is like very helpful. And I think people saw value in it then that they maybe didn't see before.

• 16:04Speaker 02

  Streaming is on the decline.

• 16:05Drew Afualo?

  Really? I just feel like young men especially really love or wanna do twitch or streaming, probably because of people, people like y'all have been in there for so long.

• 16:15Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah, I feel like, um, there's just, a, a lot of what's really popular right now is IRL streaming, which is like in real life.

• 16:23Drew Afualo?

  Just walk around doing things?

• 16:24Speaker 02

  Yeah, like say like you're in Japan and you're like live on your phone. And you just like walk around, so a lot of that, like it used to be gaming, like gaming only. But now it's what people like really like watching is when IRL streams. And so I, I do think that a lot of kids are seeing that and they really like, oh, it'd be so fun to like IRL stream and like go out and do all that, like the phase boys for example. And, cause they do have a lot younger audience. Which is, it's really interesting to see like how streaming has changed over time because like my audience, fifty percent of my audience is ages twenty-five to thirty-five.

• 17:00Drew Afualo?

  I have a really, uh, larger, an older age demographic too.

• 17:03Speaker 02

  I hope you don't mind me asking about how old are you?

• 17:04Drew Afualo?

  I'm thirty, I just turned, I just turned thirty.

• 17:07Speaker 02

  Wait, happy birthday!

• 17:10Speaker 02

  But you were giving like twenty, twenty-five for me, like you're, you're like a baby to me.

• 17:15Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, that's what a lot of people think about me too, honestly, twenty-five was like. The mark, when I said I turned thirty, a lot of people were like, what the fuck?

• 17:21Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 17:22Drew Afualo?

  I said, oh, not too much on me, relax. Go and take that tone down for me a little bit. But I honestly, I'm so fired up to be thirty. I couldn't wait.

• 17:31Speaker 02

  I'm telling you, I do feel like twenties is like the years of suffering, pain, getting cheated on, getting lied to and deceived by everybody and trying to figure out like you're,

• 17:43Drew Afualo?

  Yeah.

• 17:43Speaker 02

  Yeah, just trying to figure out your way in life. And then I feel like thirties, sure, you may still be suffering in your thirties. Hopefully not, but um, I do feel like thirties is like, you know what you want.

• 17:53Drew Afualo?

  Yeah.

• 17:54Speaker 02

  You know what you like, you know who to surround yourself with.

• 17:57Drew Afualo?

  Totally. That's so tea. When I, I remember the last like job I had before I got fired. Um, I was talking to this woman and she was in her forty, she had just turned like forty two or something and she was like, how old are you? And I think at the time I was twenty three and she was like, oh, girl, you have so much time. And I was like, yeah, she's like, yeah, if I could go back to any decade, I would pick my thirties. And I was like, really? And she goes, yeah, your thirties are the best because in your twenties, you're like spinning and you don't know and everything's, who am I? What is this? What am I doing? Thirties, it's like you're more established in who you are, what you want, what you like. And also she's like, also all your friends have money, so everything's more fun. And I was like, that's such a good point. Now you can all go do things together. You can go to dinners, you can go to lunch, you can go on vacations together.

• 18:39Speaker 02

  Everyone's hopefully a little more financially stable.

• 18:42Drew Afualo?

  She's like, now everybody's settled. So now you can start doing fun stuff like that.

• 18:45Speaker 02

  Yeah, twenties is like for grinding.

• 18:47Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, working, yeah, putting in that work. I get it.

• 18:50Speaker 02

  But don't get me wrong, it's okay to like, there's a lot of people that still go back to school in their forties or fifties, like it's okay.

• 18:56Drew Afualo?

  You can do anything.

• 18:57Speaker 02

  It's not a race.

• 18:58Drew Afualo?

  Yeah.

• 18:58Speaker 02

  Okay.

• 18:59Drew Afualo?

  Especially not for women. You have all the time in the world. I'll give you all the time in the world.

• 19:02Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 19:03Drew Afualo?

  Men, the clock starts now. For me, the clock starts now.

• 19:07Speaker 02

  Right now.

• 19:09Drew Afualo?

  So when did you start um thinking about like branching to other platforms too? Like were you kind of growing them all at the same time? Or did you kind of just lean into Twitch for a while?

• 19:18Speaker 02

  Oh, good question. Yeah, so um I had my Instagram page, of course. And so um I started streaming on Twitch and I noticed like uh I I've known that, you know, being active on all platforms is good for the whole brand, you know? So every time I go live, I always tweet that I'm live and I always post on my Insta story that I'm live. And um I was at the time posting more on TikTok, like just trying to do the whole thing. Cause a lot of people don't use a lot of platforms. Like someone may only use Instagram or some people may only use TikTok. Like, I mean, you don't even have Twitter. So it's like I'll never be able to reach you that way. So I do think it's good to um have multiple platforms. But I think it really started to hit when um I was streaming on Twitch for five years

• 20:02Speaker 02

  and then I got signed to YouTube to be an exclusive streamer after it was like during Covid like that time. So or before Covid happened, I signed to YouTube. And so I signed to YouTube three different times. And so my contract, my last contract ended this past January. And so when my contract ended, I realized I can multi-stream now. So I'm not exclusive anymore. So right now, for the past like nine months, I've been streaming on Twitch and YouTube at the same time. And at first, I was like, oh, this is a bad idea. Like, I feel like I should stream on one platform so I have like a large a a peer, larger viewership.

• 20:39Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, I see what you mean. It's not divided between two.

• 20:42Speaker 02

  Yeah, but then I realized a lot of my community was like, oh, I don't have access to Twitch in my country. Or or some people would be like, oh, yeah, I don't have um it's laggy on mobile on YouTube here or something. So I was like, I guess it's better to be, you know, on multiple platforms so the viewer can have their preferred platform. And sure, like although my peak viewership for the day isn't going to be as high as if it were on one platform, if I'm on both, I'll overall have more viewers together, like added together.

• 21:16Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, absolutely.

• 21:16Speaker 02

  So it's just better overall.

• 21:17Drew Afualo?

  And you're more accessible in that. That way.

• 21:19Speaker 02

  Exactly.

• 21:19Drew Afualo?

  Like for more people, it's longevity.

• 21:22Speaker 02

  Like Twitch is a pond in comparison to YouTube. Like I call like YouTube an ocean. Like everyone knows what YouTube is.

• 21:28Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, that's true.

• 21:29Speaker 02

  Everyone knows what Twitch is.

• 21:30Drew Afualo?

  That's true. And it's also the most long standing, like one of the longer standing mediums.

• 21:34Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 21:35Drew Afualo?

  I feel like that's the case too, because my show too, isn't exclusively on YouTube or anything like that. Only parts of it are.

• 21:41Speaker 02

  Literally, I was searching for you and I was like, I was like, guys, the brief says it's voice and video. Where's the video? And they're like, oh, it's on Spotify.

• 21:49Drew Afualo?

  It's on Spotify because I'm, I'm in partnership with Spotify right now. So like I have to tell, oh my gosh, I can't even imagine Laura runs my socials for the show. And I can't even imagine how many times she's had to answer the question, I can't find this on YouTube. Where is it? Like I've had to answer that question two billion times, but it is one of those things where it's like, right now, that's where I'm chilling. In the future, we shall see. But like making it more accessible is really helpful. And YouTube, I feel like on the brand side of things, YouTube is a far more legitimate to brands in a lot of ways because it's lived the longest out of all these like platforms.

• 22:21Speaker 02

  It's just, it's the staple.

• 22:23Drew Afualo?

  It's more substantial now.

• 22:24Speaker 02

  Exactly.

• 22:25Drew Afualo?

  Yeah. So I, I do feel like that plays a huge role with brands being like, well, where is it? YouTube? Cause if it's on YouTube, they're like, oh, okay. Yeah, no, that makes sense. Cause I think even now as big and popular as TikTok is, it still isn't taken as seriously for when you have a large following on TikTok. Like they're kind of like, well. But if you have that on YouTube, they're like, yes. So it really just depends.

• 22:46Speaker 02

  I'm so curious. Um, you know how TikTok was under threat of being deleted from the US?

• 22:51Drew Afualo?

  Yes.

• 22:52Speaker 02

  Was that terrifying for you? Like, were you just like, oh, I need to be on other platforms now kind of thing?

• 22:57Drew Afualo?

  Well, you know what's funny is like when I first, first exploded like, and it was like quadrupling on itself. And I was like, shit. Like I didn't know where all these people were coming from. I was like, where the fuck? I, I for real at that point was like, I need to grow everything else because I, I know because I'm older, like you, like we're in our thirties.

• 23:13Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 23:14Drew Afualo?

  Like I know that apps don't live forever. So like, that was years ago, way before anything was under threat of being deleted. So I already started doing, that's why I started this show. My, I have another show with my sister, my book.

• 23:25Speaker 02

  Really?

• 23:25Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, I have two podcasts. Enough yap for two, if you can believe it.

• 23:30Speaker 02

  I'm shocked. My, uh, I have a podcast as well called Wine About It with Kiti Cinderella, and she also has another podcast. And I'm like, how do you like not talk about the same topic on two different pods?

• 23:42Drew Afualo?

  Oh, I do all the time. You would see, you can't even believe how many times fans have been like, I've heard that story. You tried talking for 200 episodes, bitch. You're gonna start to repeat yourself.

• 23:52Drew Afualo?

  You do stream and that sounds very fucking hard to me, too.

• 23:57Speaker 02

  Like talk about stuff that I should save for the pod on stream because I get really excited.

• 24:04Speaker 02

  And that's tough. Like, it's really tough having two pods. I don't know how you do it, honestly.

• 24:07Drew Afualo?

  Oh, yeah. Well, well, when I first started doing all of this and like rolling balls in all directions. Um, I was kind of preparing for if this, if that ever did happen, like, or it got, plus I was getting deleted so often that I was like, they might, they might snipe me out of the sky, then what? So I already was prepared for that. Mind you, when it was happening early this year. I had just taken a break, like from TikTok specifically because it was choking me out. And so I was like, I can't do this anymore. I need a break from you, hoes. Otherwise, I'm gonna start hating it here and I need to leave. So I took like six.

• 24:39Speaker 02

  Oh, I think I remember that.

• 24:40Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, took like six weeks off, like didn't look at TikTok. The only thing I posted were branded things. And then as I was like preparing to come back, I posted old drafts and shit, but never looked at it, which was beautiful and amazing. So when they were like, oh, it's going away, I'm gonna be honest, I didn't give a fuck.

• 24:56Speaker 02

  You didn't care?

• 24:57Drew Afualo?

  I didn't care at all. It's like.

• 25:01Drew Afualo?

  It's because like, and I'm sure most people who like are balls deep in TikTok like me, or even if you're just a regular avid scroller. It has gotten really fucking rotted in a lot of ways. Like it has, it is not fun anymore. Like in so many ways. There are still pockets of joy I find all the time on TikTok. And when I see certain videos, I'm like, this is why I love this fucking app. Because I could never watch someone do this shit. I watched a farrier dude clean hooves for like an hour yesterday. I could never watch that shit anywhere else. I'm never gonna look it up myself.

• 25:34Speaker 02

  That is true.

• 25:35Drew Afualo?

  That's why I'm like, it, it's a beautiful app in many ways and very fun and I'm very thankful to it. That being said. It has gotten unbearable in a lot of ways, too, where, have you heard the term bean salad?

• 25:46Speaker 02

  No.

• 25:46Drew Afualo?

  Okay, so when people

• 25:48Speaker 02

  Bean salad?

• 25:49Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, they're like, you're gonna bean salad me, which on TikTok means there was this one lady who goes, this is my, my grandma's bean salad recipe and has the whole salad. This is a cooking video.

• 25:58Speaker 02

  Okay.

• 25:59Drew Afualo?

  She's like, this is the, all the ingredients and she's going through it. And the top comment said, what if I'm allergic to beans? Don't eat it. Like, I don't know how, how to fucking answer that question for you. Don't eat it. And so that

• 26:10Speaker 02

  Take the beans out.

• 26:11Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, the what about isms of it, like, what about me? Or like, you'll say something like, I hate a slow walker. And they'll, and they'll say something like, well, guess what? I have an illness and that makes me walk slow. And now you're being ableist towards me. Bean salad, bean salad.

• 26:26Speaker 02

  I didn't know it was like that.

• 26:28Drew Afualo?

  Oh, yeah, girl, it's awful. So like, around that time is when I had to take a break. I was like, okay, I need to take a break because now I'm starting to genuinely resent making videos.

• 26:37Speaker 02

  Which is bad, because like, you never want like, your, like, your job, which was your hobby

• 26:42Drew Afualo?

  Exactly.

• 26:43Speaker 02

  to turn toxic.

• 26:44Drew Afualo?

  Right, exactly. And I, and I've even explained to, and I'm, you'll know this too, because you've been in the game for a while too, like, it's not something that anyone, like, that genuine people, I would say, who have platforms and have kept them for a long time. It's not something we planned on happening. Like, it's not like

• 26:59Speaker 02

  Oh, yeah, no, it literally is just like

• 27:00Drew Afualo?

  It just happened.

• 27:01Speaker 02

  What is happening.

• 27:02Drew Afualo?

  Right. And then I'm figuring it out as I go along, because literally, nobody knows until it happens to them, how to navigate it. So it's like, in that kind of mentality that I have of like, this just kind of happened. I think this entitlement of audiences sometimes feeling like you should just know everything because you chose to do this. That's not true. I, this happened to me. I chose to embrace it.

• 27:23Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 27:23Drew Afualo?

  But I never once did I sign something saying, you guys can torture me for the rest of my life about everything I say ever, and read into things I didn't say ever. Like, I never once said that.

• 27:33Speaker 02

  Frustrating part is when like, you say something with good intentions and not realizing how it can be perceived by someone else. And then they just like ridicule it, ridicule you for it. And it's like, I know I didn't have any ill intention in saying this. And like, I wish I could respond to every single person and be like, this is what I meant.

• 27:51Drew Afualo?

  Right.

• 27:52Speaker 02

  But you can't have these conversations with every single people.

• 27:54Drew Afualo?

  Oh, yeah, girl. You know the show, The Summer I Turned Pretty?

• 27:57Speaker 02

  I haven't watched it yet, but I heard it was really good.

• 27:59Drew Afualo?

  Okay, well,

• 27:59Speaker 02

  No spoilers.

• 28:00Drew Afualo?

  If you do watch it,

• 28:02Speaker 02

  I'm gonna watch it.

• 28:02Drew Afualo?

  Careful how you talk about it publicly, because 15 year old girls will tell you to kill yourself if you pick the wrong boy. I'm speaking from experience.

• 28:09Speaker 02

  The girls too? No, only the guys can tell me to kill myself.

• 28:12Drew Afualo?

  Well, that's.

• 28:13Speaker 02

  Please.

• 28:14Drew Afualo?

  It's it's normal when they do it. When women do it, it just kills me.

• 28:19Speaker 02

  I got so used to like getting hate from guys for my whole entire career. When there was like one girl.

• 28:26Drew Afualo?

  Right.

• 28:26Speaker 02

  I like, I literally DM'd her this one time when I saw a comment from this girl and I was like, hey, let's talk about it. What did I do? I I'm not used to this type of like.

• 28:35Drew Afualo?

  Sign?

• 28:36Speaker 02

  Yeah. Oh, mine?

• 28:37Drew Afualo?

  Yeah.

• 28:37Speaker 02

  What am I giving?

• 28:38Drew Afualo?

  You're giving cancer or something.

• 28:40Speaker 02

  Really?

• 28:40Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, you're giving very emotional. Capricorn.

• 28:43Speaker 02

  I'm a work-heavy.

• 28:44Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, tea.

• 28:45Speaker 02

  Um, I think I'm in a Aquarius.

• 28:47Drew Afualo?

  Let's talk about this.

• 28:49Speaker 02

  Aquarius, Aquarius moon and Sagittarius rising.

• 28:52Drew Afualo?

  I talk a lot. Oh, I'm a Sag, I'm a Sag rising too. I talk a lot of shit on Capricorns.

• 28:57Speaker 02

  It's valid.

• 28:58Drew Afualo?

  Capricorn, he's not in here, but Adam's a Capricorn. I but.

• 29:01Speaker 02

  I wish I wasn't a Capricorn. I wish I could be anything cooler because I feel like everyone looks like Capricorns are like, yeah, they're loners. They just like to work a lot. Like.

• 29:08Drew Afualo?

  That's true.

• 29:09Speaker 02

  Losers.

• 29:10Drew Afualo?

  That is true, but you know who else is a Capricorn? Cynthia Revo. So.

• 29:14Speaker 02

  I don't know who that is.

• 29:15Drew Afualo?

  She plays Elphaba in Wicked.

• 29:17Speaker 02

  Oh, oh, oh, I'm so bad with names. I I'm so bad with names.

• 29:22Drew Afualo?

  Is.

• 29:24Drew Afualo?

  She's Elphaba.

• 29:25Speaker 02

  Let me tell you, I've been telling people I've been coming on your pod and on stream like every every like five, I was like, oh, yeah, guys, I'm going on Drew's. Afualo. And then I'm like, I had to, how do I pronounce her name? I'm gonna butcher her name.

• 29:37Drew Afualo?

  Now I'm gonna bully you.

• 29:38Speaker 02

  Bad with names.

• 29:40Drew Afualo?

  I'm just kidding.

• 29:41Speaker 02

  What's new? Join the club. I'm gonna send you a DM. Be like, girl, can we talk about it?

• 29:44Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, let's talk about this.

• 29:46Speaker 02

  What did I do wrong?

• 29:47Drew Afualo?

  So you DM'd, so you DM'd some girl.

• 29:49Speaker 02

  I, yes, it was like the first time I've ever gotten like a hate comment from a woman.

• 29:54Drew Afualo?

  Yeah.

• 29:54Speaker 02

  And I was like, oh, we can fix this. But like every time I feel like it's with a guy, like a hater. I'm like, oh, you're just a nester.

• 30:00Drew Afualo?

  Yeah. Well, you're a man, so obviously that makes sense.

• 30:03Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 30:03Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, you're telling me. I'm so used to getting hate from men, so much so to the fact that like, well, the reason I brought up the summer turn pretty is because like, when I would joke about that show with my sister on our podcast, um, I started getting. Girls making videos about me like being like, oh, I can't believe Drew is Team Jeremiah, which like it's funny, it's fun because there's two brothers and it's like a love triangle. So it's fun to like be on opposite.

• 30:26Speaker 02

  Is it kind of like Twilight?

• 30:28Drew Afualo?

  Kind of, yeah, there's no mythical elements to it.

• 30:30Speaker 02

  I see.

• 30:31Drew Afualo?

  Similar in the sense of love triangle, right?

• 30:34Speaker 02

  I see.

• 30:34Drew Afualo?

  And so it's like you picked sides.

• 30:36Speaker 02

  You pick a side, which kind of shows your character.

• 30:38Drew Afualo?

  Right.

• 30:39Speaker 02

  I see.

• 30:39Drew Afualo?

  Well, you would, yeah, you would fuck, you know, apparently they read some real awful about me when I wasn't Team Conrad. Cause when I jokingly, I was like, no, fuck Conrad, like, cause it's true. Like that's, that is how I felt watching the show.

• 30:50Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 30:51Drew Afualo?

  Um, some girl made a funny video saying like, oh, I'm devastated that Drew's Team Jeremiah, but it was done in good faith. It was funny.

• 30:57Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 30:58Drew Afualo?

  I liked it. I enjoyed it. But in the comments, girl, you would have thought I said a slur online.

• 31:03Speaker 02

  Like you murdered someone.

• 31:04Drew Afualo?

  You would have thought I went live and said something real offensive to someone to their face because it was genuine. The way women were like, I don't know, I just, someone literally said, I've unraveled every good thing I've ever done for the internet. By being Team Jeremiah, she was being dead ass. She was being so serious.

• 31:22Speaker 02

  No way.

• 31:23Drew Afualo?

  Speaking of talking to them privately, I don't talk to them privately. I talk to them publicly. So I'll sometimes, when I see people running a hate train about me, I'll jump in there and I'll be like, what exactly are you talking about? And I'll start talking to them.

• 31:34Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 31:35Drew Afualo?

  And this girl's like, I don't know, I just felt like it's really anti feminist.

• 31:43Speaker 00

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• 32:16Speaker 02

  Okay, I know you're the best person to ask about this and this is actually something I've just always struggled with because I'm such a confrontational person that when there's a problem, I want to talk it out. Like I want to, I'm so overly vocal, which is bad with streaming, because it's live and you can't like edit anything. Like and I'm, I'm not the most well spoken person. Like I'm gonna say it like, I'm gonna speak from my heart and be like, I didn't mean this blah blah blah. And then they'll like clip a part of it and be like, Ray said this. So do you think that addressing these comments and stuff, like, do you think it's overall a positive thing?

• 32:52Drew Afualo?

  Well, I think it depends because if you ask my therapist, she would say no. But like, it depends.

• 32:58Speaker 02

  Literally, all my friends are like, stop saying shit. And I'm like, but I want to explain myself.

• 33:02Drew Afualo?

  No, and me too. And I, and I have honestly gone into major detail about that in therapy. Like I've talked to my therapist extensively about feeling the need to defend myself about everything, especially when it speaks to integrity or character. But then when I realizes the longer I've done this, because I am so confrontational, just brand wise, that is my thing. I'm very confrontational about most things. It gets to a point where there are certain people who are committed to misunderstanding you because they just genuinely don't like you.

• 33:30Speaker 02

  Like they straight up, you might be talking to someone that's just genuinely racist.

• 33:34Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 33:35Speaker 02

  And they just, no matter what you say, they're just gonna be like, oh, I got her to react kind of thing.

• 33:40Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, exactly. And they're like, I can't believe you have this many followers and you're responding to me. Like, that's one of the first things they always say to me. And I'm like, this is my job. I got nothing but time, girl, to come here and yell at you. Like, I got nothing but time. But I, I would say that, like, what mattered over time for me was not addressing every single thing, which I did do constantly. What mattered after that is addressing things that I felt were necessary to address. Like, if someone is just committed to like, misunderstanding, hating me, or finding, finding a valid reason to hate me, there's really no point because I could sit here and explain myself over and over and over again, and you're still gonna end with, I don't know, I just don't like you.

• 34:17Speaker 02

  Yeah, they're just not gonna trust you.

• 34:19Drew Afualo?

  Right. So at that point, it's like, it's a moot point, really. So I think once I started letting go of that. That made my job far less stressful on me.

• 34:28Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 34:28Drew Afualo?

  Because then I was like, yeah, I actually don't need to address every single lie that people make up about me because then I'd be. I've been doing it all day, girl. You would not believe the things I've seen. There was one time where this guy literally was telling people, and I mean on every platform, TikTok, Instagram, Twitter.

• 34:47Speaker 02

  Like he was committed to the bit.

• 34:48Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, and he's in his fifties and is a dad, like has two girls, like he's married, allegedly a multimillionaire. Fuck if I know for real. He was telling people that I was a plant from TikTok, but. Yes, but I was a Chinese communist. Like he said, I'm part of the CCP. I can't express that enough. He kept saying like, why were you in China last year? I've never been to China, girl. Like what?

• 35:14Speaker 02

  I mean, even if you were.

• 35:16Drew Afualo?

  And you would go live and literally be like, she's a communist, like she's from the Chinese government, like they sent me.

• 35:24Drew Afualo?

  I think there's a pretty obvious signifier that I am not Chinese and I'm not from China. Like I think there's.

• 35:30Speaker 02

  We're gonna need a DNA test. Yeah, I don't know. There might be a one percent.

• 35:35Drew Afualo?

  To the point that he went on that Fresh and Fit podcast, that like awful incel burrito podcast. Went on there, did two full episodes with them about me being a communist.

• 35:47Speaker 02

  The entire time, talking about you.

• 35:50Drew Afualo?

  Fifteen minutes and God bless my manager because he paid for the Patreon or YouTube Red access to go watch it. Just to make sure, like capture everything they were saying about me because I was like, I don't want to go look at that. And I remember one of my fans, I think, heard about it because he was insane. Like he was posting hundreds of thousands of things about me about that. I'm ignoring it the whole fucking time. He literally went in, someone went in there, watched parts of it, came out, sent them to me and was like, this guy's nuts. Like anytime my fans would see it, they'd be like, this guy's literally off his rocker because it's true. But he was like saying she, and what about this? What if she's part of the Chinese government?

• 36:29Drew Afualo?

  Those two ding dongs that host the Fresh and Fit show, they both go, haha, yeah, that'd be crazy. And then he goes, it's not funny. It's not funny.

• 36:37Speaker 02

  He's serious, like real serious.

• 36:40Drew Afualo?

  And then they both go, oh, okay. No, yeah, for sure. It's not funny.

• 36:43Speaker 02

  I'm shocked.

• 36:44Drew Afualo?

  Girl, I don't have the time in the day to sit around and tell you.

• 36:47Speaker 02

  I mean, you'll never convince him that you're not.

• 36:49Drew Afualo?

  What am I gonna do? Show you my birth certificate? I'm not doing that. Like, you're a hundred-year-old man. You're two steps from the grave. Like, I'm not worried about you.

• 36:54Speaker 02

  Like, focus on your kids.

• 36:56Drew Afualo?

  Girl, I said, "You just had a baby, and this is what you're doing? Does your wife know?" Anyways.

• 37:00Speaker 02

  Dude, imagine growing up and, like, seeing your parent, like, focus on this. Like, that's rough.

• 37:06Drew Afualo?

  One time, recently, like, I think the bean salad version of hate is the part that was making me go insane. And then, once I started letting go of that, I could focus on the regular hate, which is, like, from men, like you. And honestly, like, when I recently, I had a guy doing, like, harassing me, just calling me fat and ugly a million times. And I literally told my fiance, I was like, "I missed this kind of hate."

• 37:27Speaker 02

  This is like the, this is normal, regular, like...

• 37:30Drew Afualo?

  This feels regular to me. Like, this feels like home. Welcome home. Like, I'm used to this shit. This shit I could do in my sleep. I could do it with my eyes closed. I can do, I've done that for years. I don't care about that.

• 37:42Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 37:42Drew Afualo?

  But I get it, though. Like, it gets to a point where you, like, you feel the need to talk or respond to, like, every single thing. Yeah.

• 37:50Speaker 02

  Cause I really do think...

• 37:51Drew Afualo?

  Especially with women. They continually misunderstand and, like, misinterpret women especially.

• 37:56Speaker 02

  Oh, now I gotta watch this show, like, tonight.

• 37:58Drew Afualo?

  You have to.

• 37:59Speaker 02

  I've been meaning to, um, but I was literally a year...

• 38:01Drew Afualo?

  And all the seasons are out, so it's perfect.

• 38:02Speaker 02

  Oh, really?

• 38:03Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, you don't have to wait.

• 38:03Speaker 02

  It's three seasons, right?

• 38:04Drew Afualo?

  Mm-hmm.

• 38:04Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 38:05Drew Afualo?

  You don't have to wait for anything.

• 38:06Speaker 02

  Is there a fourth one coming out?

• 38:07Drew Afualo?

  No, there's a movie coming out. And God help everyone when that movie comes out. I don't know what the fuck I'm gonna do. I'm gonna bolt my windows, and then I'm gonna stream live, and I'm gonna talk my shit.

• 38:17Speaker 02

  A movie? Girl, get behind me. Get behind me.

• 38:21Drew Afualo?

  I literally was like, "I don't give a damn. You guys are not gonna bully me. I don't give a damn." But a bunch of, even, um, Julian Salamita, when I was like, I had posted on my, um, Instagram story, like, "Hey, some of you need to calm the fuck down about this show. Like, who cares? Like, they're two made-up white boys. I don't give a fuck. Who cares? Who cares? Who cares? Everyone's fine. Who cares?" Um, and he messaged me, and he was like, "This seems like such a stress-free activity. Should I start watching it?" And I go, "Only if you want teenagers to tell you to kill yourself." Only if that's what you're looking for. If you're interested, there's a big market for it over there. We want to talk about that show.

• 39:00Speaker 02

  Wait, that's crazy. So do you like, do you have like a younger female audience?

• 39:05Drew Afualo?

  Um, no, girl. I don't.

• 39:07Speaker 02

  Where are they coming from?

• 39:09Drew Afualo?

  I think my youngest one, I, my youngest age demographic, I think is eighteen.

• 39:13Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 39:13Drew Afualo?

  So like I, what happened was when I was talking shit on Conrad, this fake boy. I was talking shit on him and I was like, being funny about it, but I was like, this is why you Conrad, which is, will never get me. And I was like, going on a little rant about it in my Instagram story, because that's where I key about stupid shit, like it's in my stories.

• 39:30Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 39:31Drew Afualo?

  Um, a, a big Bonrad fan, that's like their ship name. She screenshot my stories. She doesn't follow me. She went to Twitter on a Bonrad fan account and then had viral tweets saying like Drew's a fucking bitch because she doesn't like Conrad. Like a nineteen year old girl, literally like a nineteen year old Bonrad fan group. It was like three or four of them. And then they were just, that's, that's how all those tweens found me, I think.

• 39:56Speaker 02

  Yeah, I see.

• 39:56Drew Afualo?

  But for the most part, the women who were sending me the most racist, like terrible DMs about, again, this fake boy. Um, they were all in.

• 40:05Speaker 02

  DMs open?

• 40:06Drew Afualo?

  Well, they're in my requests.

• 40:07Speaker 02

  Oh, I see, I see. Ooh, I don't even touch those.

• 40:10Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, no. I was only looking in there, purely I was looking in there to see like, uh, if people were sending really hateful shit in there because I couldn't even imagine like, I saw it in comments. I couldn't even imagine what they were saying in my DMs.

• 40:23Speaker 02

  Oh, yeah. Where they think that no one else is gonna see it except for you.

• 40:26Drew Afualo?

  And then when I, I'm not someone who blurs names. I never cut out usernames. Like if you want to say some crazy shit in my DMs, you're, everyone's gonna see it. Like everyone's gonna see it.

• 40:34Speaker 02

  Sometimes they want that, though.

• 40:35Drew Afualo?

  I know. So then I put him, but then you'd be surprised how many women who were harassing me over that stupid ass show. Were like, wow, really? Like, I'm a nurse and you're gonna put my information out there like that? Yeah, bitch, I am.

• 40:49Speaker 02

  Ooh.

• 40:50Drew Afualo?

  No one told you to come in here and harass me? Like, no one told you to come in here and say something racist to me? And now you're worried your employer might see it?

• 40:56Speaker 02

  I mean, that's your character. Yeah.

• 40:58Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, maybe you should have thought of that. Like, but in a fun, a funnier version of that story. Recently I had a man come into my DMs and he wrote like, he wrote something awful about, like he was like, you're fat and disgusting and like, what this guy's saying about you is true, whatever, some bullshit. I go on his, um, profile, I go and look, he has a girlfriend and a son. And so I go and look and I, I said like, does your girlfriend know that you spend your free time harassing women or should I tell her? I always say that to men who think that's funny. And then he, I waited for him to say something to me because I was like, say something to me bitch for real. And then he said, she knows, I don't fuck with you, I don't care.

• 41:39Drew Afualo?

  And then I said, alright, so I screenshot that, went to his girl's DM, sent her like, hey girl, you don't know me, I've done that many times. And I'm like, but your man thinks it's funny to say shit like this to women he doesn't know on the internet. And if my man were embarrassing me like that, I would want someone to tell me. And I said to her, and then I left him in my, in my DMs because I just wanted to see if he would post it. And I posted it publicly too. Then he DM'd me back and he goes, wow, really? You're gonna fucking tell my, my girlfriend on me? Are you serious? What are you, a child? Literally starts like-

• 42:09Speaker 02

  I mean, you warned him. Like, hello?

• 42:11Drew Afualo?

  You said you didn't give a fuck.

• 42:12Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 42:13Drew Afualo?

  I thought you said you didn't care.

• 42:15Speaker 02

  So why are you so mad?

• 42:16Drew Afualo?

  And he literally was like, I, like, wow, okay, that's, yeah, alright. And I said, and you work in the medical fields? I said, hopefully not with women. And then he was like, why would you, why would you post my information? And he was like, I'm gonna sue you. And I was like, for what?

• 42:35Speaker 00

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• 43:09Drew Afualo?

  This girl was mean to me. Sued, I'm like, you don't have the money to sue me.

• 43:13Speaker 02

  Yeah, that'll go well in court.

• 43:15Drew Afualo?

  And his, and that's one of the few girlfriends that have DM'd me back because most of the time they don't say anything back to me. But she messaged me back and said, um, I'm so sorry and I'm so embarrassed.

• 43:26Speaker 02

  It is embarrassing.

• 43:28Drew Afualo?

  It is, it's humiliating.

• 43:29Speaker 02

  Imagine like your partner is just like spending their time like DMing other women and like calling them names.

• 43:35Drew Afualo?

  Girl, my man was harassing, like sexually harassing women online.

• 43:38Speaker 02

  Ugh.

• 43:39Drew Afualo?

  Oh my god, you're gonna embarrass me like that?

• 43:42Speaker 02

  Nah, that's a, that's a deal breaker.

• 43:45Drew Afualo?

  Back in your crate.

• 43:48Drew Afualo?

  Okay, I have some fun facts about you, Ray.

• 43:50Speaker 02

  Oh, really?

• 43:52Drew Afualo?

  Speaking of crates, just kidding.

• 43:56Drew Afualo?

  Okay, it says, your real name, Rachel?

• 43:59Speaker 02

  Mm-hmm.

• 44:00Drew Afualo?

  Is spelled with two L's, but she didn't realize until she was in sixth grade.

• 44:05Speaker 02

  How did you even find this information?

• 44:07Drew Afualo?

  You were misspelling your own name?

• 44:09Speaker 02

  Uh, yeah, so I, my real name's Rachel. And I literally didn't find out until I saw my birth certificate in sixth grade. Like, I was just like going through papers and stuff. And like, I found it. And I see Rachel Hofstadter, Rachel spelled with two L's. And so I go to my mom, and I'm like, this is how you spell my name?

• 44:30Drew Afualo?

  Yeah.

• 44:31Speaker 02

  And she goes, oh yeah, the nurse misheard me.

• 44:35Speaker 02

  The nurse didn't understand my accent. And I'm like, you didn't want to tell me, or like?

• 44:39Drew Afualo?

  Right.

• 44:40Speaker 02

  Hello?

• 44:40Drew Afualo?

  She's like, ah, who's coming for you?

• 44:42Speaker 02

  Yeah, I think she, literally, she's like, who cares?

• 44:44Drew Afualo?

  It's a government name?

• 44:45Speaker 02

  She's like, it's an extra letter, whatever. Um, yeah, no, my mom is a little, um, she's a little, she's a little crazy. So she gave my sister and I the same middle name, which is her name, mind you, Marie.

• 44:55Drew Afualo?

  She's so real.

• 44:56Speaker 02

  Which is really hilarious.

• 44:57Drew Afualo?

  She's so real.

• 44:58Speaker 02

  And she-

• 44:58Drew Afualo?

  She said, I know two divas when I see them.

• 45:00Speaker 02

  Yeah, she's like, it's me. But like, uh, my sister, she also gave my sister kind of a weird name. My sister has two periods in her name, like legal birth certificate. My sister's getting her name changed. That's how bad it is with like, getting like, uh, documents with periods. It's literally K-dot, C-dot, Lynn. So it's, my sister hates it. But my mom is like, I feel like she's a little too crazy with the names. And so I, I asked her, I was like, why? Like, why does my name have two L's? And she was like, oh, um, she's like, I don't know, I feel like it should be Rochelle, Ra- Raquel. And she's like, I want to name you after your father, Ra- uh, Richard, because my dad's Richard. I'm like, okay, like, I don't see how it's the same. It just starts with an R, I guess. Like, sure.

• 45:44Drew Afualo?

  We're just talking initials, mom.

• 45:45Speaker 02

  Yeah, I think she's just like, you know, giving me a bunch of excuses at this point. And then she's like, well, originally, your name was supposed to be Nicole, but then I found out that her, her friend named her daughter's middle name Nicole. And so she changed it last second, apparently.

• 45:57Drew Afualo?

  Right.

• 45:58Speaker 02

  I'm like.

• 45:58Drew Afualo?

  None of that answers why you put two L's in there.

• 46:01Speaker 02

  Exactly. Like, I, I literally think she told the nurse, uh, yeah, name her Rachel. And then the nurse just spelt it. I don't know.

• 46:09Drew Afualo?

  With two L's.

• 46:10Speaker 02

  Like, it's, it's kinda crazy.

• 46:12Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, my si- my sister's name is Dason, but it's spelled D E I S O N.

• 46:17Speaker 02

  I love both of your names. It's so unique.

• 46:19Drew Afualo?

  But my mom was asleep when they brought the birth certificate for my sister. And my dad, it was supposed to be spelled D E Y S O N. But my dad was like, my dad was awake, so my dad was like, oh, and he just wrote D E I S O N. My mom said they spelled her name wrong. And he goes, no, that's how I wrote it. And she was like, why would you write it that way? And he goes, well, I thought it was like modern day, like the high school. And then my mom goes, why the, why would I name her after a school? Like, why would I? Why would I use that spelling after a school for my firstborn child? Like, why would I ever do that? And then my dad was like, I don't know.

• 46:54Speaker 02

  It's kinda crazy. Now that I think about it, why are they having you name your baby after like you give birth?

• 46:59Drew Afualo?

  No shit. Like, give me a second.

• 47:01Speaker 02

  I, I think it's crazy that like, only your dad was in the process of like.

• 47:04Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, he was like, oh, well, maybe we could just change it. And my mom goes, we can't fucking change.

• 47:08Speaker 02

  Yeah, you can't just change it.

• 47:10Drew Afualo?

  It's on the birth certificate now. So now like, my sister's whole life, everyone has said Dyson. Because it's D, because of the I.

• 47:17Speaker 02

  I see.

• 47:18Drew Afualo?

  So she's like, so you made my life harder. Thanks for that.

• 47:20Speaker 02

  Oh, my gosh.

• 47:22Drew Afualo?

  And my, my sister's actual middle name is my dad's name. Yeah.

• 47:26Speaker 02

  Oh, yeah?

• 47:27Drew Afualo?

  Yeah.

• 47:27Speaker 02

  So at least you don't have the same, like, middle names, right?

• 47:30Drew Afualo?

  No, we don't. Mine's Tyson. So mine's Drew Tyson off wall. Hers is Dason Tate.

• 47:35Speaker 02

  That's so sick. Do you like your name?

• 47:36Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, I love my name. I used, I used to really dislike my name because, mostly because every time I said it, everyone always be like, oh, like Drew Carey, which I was always like, why is that the first Drew you think of?

• 47:48Speaker 02

  It's like the only Drew.

• 47:49Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, but I was like Drew Barrymore is the first one I think of. And that's who I was named after. Like, my mom loved the name Drew as like a gender neutral name. And so, and Mike Tyson was big at the time I was born. So that's why Tyson's my middle name.

• 48:01Speaker 02

  No way.

• 48:03Drew Afualo?

  Me and Mike Tyson, twin.

• 48:04Speaker 02

  That's hilarious.

• 48:06Drew Afualo?

  And also.

• 48:08Speaker 02

  You're kicking ass as well.

• 48:09Drew Afualo?

  Similar hairline. Yeah. Like to hit, we both wanna hit Jake Paul.

• 48:16Drew Afualo?

  You know, all the thing. We have so much in common, he and I.

• 48:18Speaker 02

  Wait, that is, I did not know that about you.

• 48:20Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, all of us, all of us have the same initials. Me and my, and my brother are like me and my siblings.

• 48:26Speaker 02

  It's three of you?

• 48:27Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, there's, it's DTA for all of us. So we all have the same.

• 48:30Speaker 02

  Wait, that's, was there a reason why they wanted DT?

• 48:34Drew Afualo?

  I don't think so.

• 48:35Speaker 02

  It was just the trend?

• 48:35Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, my mom just like really, and someone, no one diagnosed my mom. I know one of you's gonna try. My mom like names everyone or every pet we've ever had with a D name. Like, that was always required. So my mom would do this cute little game where she would bring up a pet into the house and she'd be like, we'd be like, oh my God, no way. She'd be like, let's pick a name as a family. And then me and my sister would cook up a name. We'd be like, okay, yeah, let's think of something whimsical and fun. And then we'd present the name and she'd be like, that's cute. No, her name's Darla. So I've already named her.

• 49:04Speaker 02

  Oh my gosh.

• 49:05Drew Afualo?

  I'm not even kidding. I've had plenty of dogs, cats, everything. We'd be like, well, I think I want to name, mm, no, I'm thinking Dexter. That's his name. So, so I already got the collar and here it is. And it was like, my mom would just-

• 49:18Speaker 02

  The collar's already there.

• 49:19Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, my mom would do this thing where she's like, team meeting, let's think of one. That sucks. Okay, I'm gonna pick this one. And like, it was almost like, great, let's get the bad names out of the way.

• 49:26Speaker 02

  It's like she wants you to feel involved, but like at the end of the day, you don't really have a choice.

• 49:29Drew Afualo?

  But also I hate that fucking name. So no, I'm not gonna pick that. Um, it was like, it, she did it every year for years, like every time we had an animal.

• 49:37Speaker 02

  Wait, that's so funny.

• 49:37Drew Afualo?

  And then I remember my sister got her own dog for the first time.

• 49:41Speaker 02

  Don't tell me she named-

• 49:43Drew Afualo?

  Well, she picked the name already. My sister picked the name. She's like, I already have it. I want his name to be, do you remember what it was? It was like Taco or something. Yeah, it was like, yeah, she's like jelly. It was a bulldog. And then my mom goes,

• 49:57Drew Afualo?

  I think his name should be Duke. And guess what his name was? Duke.

• 50:02Speaker 02

  You're joking.

• 50:04Drew Afualo?

  So like, that's cute. Um. I hate that name. Let's pick one with a D. Actually, I think I already came up with one. Let's do this one. That my mom did that every time. And then when I got my own animals in my own house, I said, guess what? No D names in this house.

• 50:18Speaker 02

  Yeah, no, respectfully, I would probably lose my mind. I don't know how, I don't know how.

• 50:23Drew Afualo?

  It was just the most like, alright.

• 50:26Speaker 02

  It's like you kind of just accepted.

• 50:27Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, we were all just kind of like, oh, alright, whatever. I've had a lot of animals. Do you have a lot of animals? I know you have your own Sheba.

• 50:33Speaker 02

  Yes, right now I have a dog. His name is Mika. He's, we have the same birthday, January 8th.

• 50:39Drew Afualo?

  He's also a Capricorn.

• 50:40Speaker 02

  Yes, he is. He acts like it too. He's a businessman. And yeah, no, I, I used to grow up on a farm. I, I used to have llamas, chickens, bunnies, like we had a saltwater tank. We had, it was crazy. There'd be like rattlesnakes in the yard and everything, but um, yeah, I've grew up around animals, a lot of animals. Um, I want to get a cat. I was just telling Drew right before we started filming that like, I'm waiting for the cat distribution system to hit me hard, like a truck. Like, I'm ready for a cat, so I think I need to go on long walks. I'm just afraid to walk by myself in LA, so I'm like.

• 51:12Drew Afualo?

  Naturally.

• 51:12Speaker 02

  Like, I'm like driving, like, looking for the cats.

• 51:15Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, keeping an eye out.

• 51:16Speaker 02

  Yeah, but I feel like if you're like walking, you know, maybe if you hear a little meow, I'm like, this is it. This is it.

• 51:22Drew Afualo?

  What happened to me today.

• 51:23Speaker 02

  I just like, I just want to find one on the streets and be like, let me take care of you.

• 51:28Drew Afualo?

  Let me heal you.

• 51:29Speaker 02

  Let me heal you.

• 51:31Drew Afualo?

  I think that's a fun way of deciding you want a cat.

• 51:34Speaker 02

  Exactly, like, just like, it's random. It'll be so random. It'll be like a loot box. You never know what's gonna come out of the bushes. Um, but yeah, I'm babysitting one of my friends' cats this weekend, and so I think it's gonna be a good trial to see how my dog reacts around like a cat in the house.

• 51:49Drew Afualo?

  Yeah.

• 51:49Speaker 02

  Cause my dog's been around cats before, but I used to have roommates where their cats literally had like a piss war, like in the living room.

• 51:56Drew Afualo?

  Cause of the smells.

• 51:57Speaker 02

  They would fight with each other and stuff. And so their cats had to be like locked away in their rooms. And so my dog didn't really get to have like that cat experience.

• 52:04Drew Afualo?

  Right.

• 52:05Speaker 02

  So I'm really curious. So it's nice. I'm gonna like cat sitting and like see like, hey, how he's gonna react with like cats and stuff, so.

• 52:11Drew Afualo?

  How is he typically with other animals?

• 52:13Speaker 02

  He loves dogs. Um, he's a little, I, I think my dog's asexual and there's something a little crazy. I, I think he, I've never seen him, you know how dogs like hump everything?

• 52:22Drew Afualo?

  Yeah.

• 52:23Speaker 02

  And like chew everything.

• 52:24Drew Afualo?

  Especially boy dogs, yeah.

• 52:24Speaker 02

  Yes. So my dog has never humped anything in his whole life.

• 52:30Speaker 02

  Ever.

• 52:31Drew Afualo?

  Maybe he's waiting for marriage.

• 52:32Speaker 02

  Yeah, maybe, who knows? And also, he's never, he doesn't chew anything, like, he's just very weird. I feel like Shebas are kinda like that already, like Shebas are kinda like the cats of the dog world, where their personalities are so hit and miss. Um, and so, he's just a little already cat-like.

• 52:50Drew Afualo?

  Yeah.

• 52:50Speaker 02

  And so I feel like he would be, I mean, he's been around cats before, but not like 24/7, and he just acts like they don't exist.

• 52:57Drew Afualo?

  That's nice.

• 52:57Speaker 02

  So I think he'd be fine.

• 52:58Drew Afualo?

  That's what you really want, you want them to just not pay attention to them really at all.

• 53:01Speaker 02

  Exactly.

• 53:02Drew Afualo?

  That's nice.

• 53:02Speaker 02

  Ooh, I'm excited for more pets.

• 53:04Drew Afualo?

  I know, I would love, I would love for you to get a cat, I think that, that makes sense.

• 53:08Speaker 02

  I'll send you a photo if I, on the street, I'm gonna be like, Drew, it happened!

• 53:11Drew Afualo?

  So, I found one, it chose me today.

• 53:14Speaker 02

  And I'm gonna name it with the letter D.

• 53:17Drew Afualo?

  There you go, have that fun little thing where you, you ask for suggestions from the chat, and then you go, all of your suggestions are stupid, I picked one already.

• 53:23Speaker 02

  Yeah, no, I'm gonna do like a poll in chat, and be like, what do you think the pet's name should be? And like, just kidding, here's the caller!

• 53:28Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, oh, thanks for all your dumb suggestions, I already picked one, here it is.

• 53:31Speaker 02

  You're like, that was a fun activity, but this is the real name.

• 53:33Drew Afualo?

  Exactly, exactly. Okay, I have some more fun facts about you. Um, well, it says you worked at GameStop in college, did you like that job?

• 53:41Speaker 02

  Uh, no, I think genuinely the worst job you can ever get, because one, it's retail, okay? So you have to hit like a quota, like, we had to like sell these game informers and like memberships and stuff.

• 53:53Drew Afualo?

  Interesting.

• 53:53Speaker 02

  So that's one thing, like, you have to like, and you're not getting tips either, it's not like you're a waitress getting tips, right? So you're doing all this stuff just to not get fired, right? And then, um, the worst part about it, which I think people don't recognize is that GameStop is also half pawn shop, right?

• 54:08Drew Afualo?

  Oh, that's right.

• 54:09Speaker 02

  So you are getting all the crackheads coming in trying to sell their Xbox game from 1990.

• 54:14Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, and they're like, can you give me like a thousand dollars for it?

• 54:16Speaker 02

  Yeah, and then you have to look it up in the system how much the game is worth, and then you have to break the news to them that their game is worth five cents.

• 54:22Drew Afualo?

  Yeah.

• 54:23Speaker 02

  And they can't buy their drugs, right?

• 54:25Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, and then they're pissed off.

• 54:26Speaker 02

  And then they freak out, and it's your fault because you're behind the counter, right? It's like, it's not my fault.

• 54:30Drew Afualo?

  And you're in that black polo, and it's just all bad.

• 54:32Speaker 02

  It, it's rough, I mean, I, I remember a time when I was like cleaning up, and there was like this baby on this woman's shoulder, and the baby dead- ass looks me in the eye and just starts puking all over on the floor and so it's just like man retail is rough

• 54:46Drew Afualo?

  yeah awful

• 54:47Speaker 02

  I feel like having a job where you can at least get tips or like have incentive to do like

• 54:52Drew Afualo?

  or movement to some extent yeah cuz you're kind of stationary too when you're in retail

• 54:57Speaker 02

  but yeah I just

• 54:58Drew Afualo?

  especially dealing with that many men a day oh god

• 55:02Speaker 02

  girl

• 55:02Drew Afualo?

  having to give men bad news all day

• 55:04Speaker 02

  it's mostly like just like people coming in and just getting yelling at you for not getting more money for their like crusty dusty game that they've like been like spitting on for the past like five years

• 55:16Drew Afualo?

  yeah right

• 55:18Speaker 02

  it's just

• 55:20Speaker 02

  it was a space

• 55:20Drew Afualo?

  no you're all nah that was the worst job ever

• 55:23Speaker 02

  I'm glad I quit but admittedly the only good thing that I I had like the good experience I had with working at GameStop is that I would like I had a good relationship with my coworker so we'd play games together after

• 55:33Drew Afualo?

  oh that's nice

• 55:34Speaker 02

  um we would have first dibs on like first releases

• 55:38Drew Afualo?

  oh that's cool

• 55:38Speaker 02

  also it worked really well with like my Instagram account cuz I'd be able to post like new things that were coming out new things I was playing so it worked well with like my business at the time

• 55:49Drew Afualo?

  never let GameStop get in the way of your streaming dreams and you didn't

• 55:53Speaker 02

  I did not

• 55:55Drew Afualo?

  it says you have one singular naturally red hair on your head

• 55:58Speaker 02

  how are you even finding these

• 56:01Drew Afualo?

  Amanda that one's weird

• 56:03Speaker 02

  how did you find that that is I'm like this is so hilarious

• 56:09Drew Afualo?

  me me pointing the finger cuz I'm like she's making me look weird but that was her who found that

• 56:13Speaker 02

  I did say it but I I've probably mentioned that like one time during a stream like 10 years ago I do

• 56:23Drew Afualo?

  Amanda's one of those people that she was at the airport waiting for you to pick her up

• 56:29Speaker 02

  how much you know about me wait that's hilarious I do I've got one natural red hair on the back of my it's like back here somewhere but yeah um I mean I I'm half German half Filipina and my dad naturally had like blonde curly hair blue eyes so I think maybe that's where the red hair came from I don't know but

• 56:50Drew Afualo?

  yeah I doubt it came from your mom

• 56:52Speaker 02

  yeah no I it's funny cuz like I have naturally uh curly hair and so people think oh it's cuz of you're Filipino and I'm like actually a lot of Filipinos I think have straight hair like my dad had a curly blonde Afro

• 57:03Drew Afualo?

  yeah

• 57:04Speaker 02

  And so it's it's really confusing cuz like when I have my natural hair it's like I feel like I don't look Filipino as much.

• 57:10Drew Afualo?

  As Filipinos.

• 57:11Speaker 02

  Yeah cuz like the cuz yeah.

• 57:13Drew Afualo?

  The texture of it.

• 57:14Speaker 02

  Exactly.

• 57:15Drew Afualo?

  Interesting.

• 57:16Speaker 02

  Yeah, no, I got, yeah, one red hair. That's so funny. That is so funny. I'm gonna find it.

• 57:20Drew Afualo?

  It's like a nice party trick.

• 57:21Speaker 02

  Been a while. I just dye my hair like often, so I don't know where it's been for a few years now. Like, is it still there? I don't know.

• 57:29Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, last I checked, which was however long ago you said that one fact one time and Amanda found it.

• 57:35Speaker 02

  Wait, that's hilarious.

• 57:36Drew Afualo?

  Good job, Amanda.

• 57:38Speaker 02

  And you need a raise.

• 57:40Drew Afualo?

  Uh, it says you've made cameos in multiple Bella Portch music videos. I think I remember one of them.

• 57:46Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 57:46Drew Afualo?

  Was Poki in that one too?

• 57:47Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 57:48Drew Afualo?

  Okay, I do remember. There was multiple gamers.

• 57:49Speaker 02

  There was multiple, um, yeah, I've I've kind of been like the background of like multiple music videos. I don't know. It's like, I guess it was part of me trying to also reach outside of the gaming sphere, but um, it kind of, gaming has opened up a lot of doors in other spaces like.

• 58:05Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, totally.

• 58:05Speaker 02

  Um, doing like music stuff or like voice acting.

• 58:09Drew Afualo?

  Oh, love.

• 58:10Speaker 02

  Yeah, um, what else is there? Like, oh, the fashion, like I went to Fashion Week.

• 58:14Drew Afualo?

  A lot of fashion stuff, yeah.

• 58:15Speaker 02

  Yeah, um, I literally was in Europe for three weeks and I just got back. That's where my bronchitis came from. It's going away. But, um, yeah, just kind of, I didn't expect to do those things and I don't think they would have happened unless I was in the gaming space. Like, I think the craziest thing that happened from gaming is that my first like fashion feature was I had a seven-page spread in Vogue Philippines, which is like, what do you mean? That's my first like fashion thing is like Vogue, hello? But like, that's because of gaming. So I feel like it just kind of opened up a bunch of doors.

• 58:44Drew Afualo?

  That's so awesome.

• 58:45Speaker 02

  Which is really cool.

• 58:45Drew Afualo?

  You, Brettman, I saw Bella did one too recently, Vogue Philippines.

• 58:50Speaker 02

  I swear, if I knew Tagalog, I would be living in the Philippines, being an actress or something or like living a whole different life. But I, it pains me that my mom never taught me Tagalog.

• 59:01Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, you can never, too late to learn. I bet you could.

• 59:04Speaker 02

  That's true. I mean, it is difficult when you don't speak the language every day. Cuz like, when am I gonna, who, my friends, none of them know Tagalog.

• 59:10Drew Afualo?

  That's how someone is too. Like, for me, I'm someone, so like. Learning. We were taking a language class for a while, which was really fun. Recently this year, but then we stopped halfway through because. Every class we would get on, it was like on Zoom once a week. Every class we would get on, we'd be like, why do I feel so far behind? And it was like me, my sister and my mom. And then we found out that they were doing classes on Thursdays too, and we just had no fucking idea. So we were missing half the fucking classes. Like, we went to like four or five Tuesdays in a row and we were like. I just feel like everyone is so much further. And it was because they were doing, literally, we missed like six classes. So that's why.

• 59:47Speaker 02

  No one told you?

• 59:48Drew Afualo?

  No, we were just like, I think we were just kind of relying on each other. We were like, yeah, no, it's fine. We'll just go. And then every time we were like. I didn't learn that last week. Now we know why.

• 59:57Speaker 02

  That would, I would lose my mind.

• 59:59Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, I was literally like.

• 1:00:00Speaker 02

  Like going to class and being like, how are people knowing?

• 1:00:02Drew Afualo?

  I remember for a while too, after like my mom was like, do you think there's another class? And then my sister was like, no, I think it's just Tuesdays. And I said, yeah, me too.

• 1:00:13Drew Afualo?

  And then literally four weeks later, she goes, I fucking knew there was another class that we were missing. Cause we, me and my sister, gaslighting her, we're like, no, he said Tuesdays.

• 1:00:23Speaker 02

  Oh my gosh, that's crazy. Have you ever tried Duolingo?

• 1:00:27Drew Afualo?

  Yeah.

• 1:00:28Speaker 02

  I don't know if it works.

• 1:00:29Drew Afualo?

  Well, Samhain's not on Duolingo. I don't think enough people speak it fluently in order for it to qualify. But I was learning Hawaiian on Duolingo for a while, because I lived in Hawaii for a while. I went to school there.

• 1:00:39Speaker 02

  That's a tough one.

• 1:00:40Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, I have a lot of family who live there, but there's a lot of crossover with Samhain. So I think that's why I was like latching on to it a little harder. I actually know more, I probably know more Hawaiian than I do Samhain, which is strange and weird, but. I get you though. Like, it's one of those, I bet Tagalog is one of those languages similarly where it's like. It's easier to learn when everybody's speaking it and you're listening to it.

• 1:00:58Speaker 02

  Living there. Like, it would just be, like, right now, I feel like the most useful language I could probably learn is like something like Spanish. Cause I feel like there's more people around me that are speaking it.

• 1:01:07Drew Afualo?

  I get that. And I speak way more Spanish too than I do either of those other two languages. So what's that mean? Who knows?

• 1:01:13Speaker 02

  DNA test.

• 1:01:14Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, and it's funny because like, uh, when I first met The Rock ever, I like greeted him respectfully and someone, there's like a whole thing you do when you greet elders, right? So I greeted him and then that clip went viral and he kind of responded to me, but didn't. He was like, oh my God, okay, are you someone, whatever? And then I saw him again and we talked about it, whatever. And I remember some people were like, she speaks Samhain and he doesn't. I don't speak it fluently.

• 1:01:38Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:01:39Drew Afualo?

  I I'm conversational at best. I can get to like, hi, how are you? Good? How are you? Good? I'm good. That's where it ends for me. After that, it's anyone's guess, right? But I remember I just practiced that greeting so many times because I took a language course of someone language in college.

• 1:01:54Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:01:55Drew Afualo?

  I was like, I just sound fluent because I've memorized those couple sentences.

• 1:01:59Speaker 02

  Yeah, I see.

• 1:02:00Drew Afualo?

  I nailed those.

• 1:02:01Speaker 02

  That's all you need sometimes would be impressive, really.

• 1:02:04Drew Afualo?

  That's what I was like, no one ever.

• 1:02:05Speaker 02

  Hola.

• 1:02:05Drew Afualo?

  That's really as far as it goes for me, for real. I know.

• 1:02:08Speaker 02

  Wait, so what is the like respectful way to introduce yourself?

• 1:02:12Drew Afualo?

  Well, when you're greeting like an older person, which would be an elder, you say like, talofa, like talofa lava maloli soyfu, which means like, it's hi, how, hi, it's nice to see you in good health, like essentially. So like in response to me, he would say malofo ilay soyfu, which is like, it's also nice to see you in good health. But he doesn't have to greet me that way because I'm younger than him, so he could just, he could just say hi.

• 1:02:33Speaker 02

  He has a choice.

• 1:02:34Drew Afualo?

  Right. I don't.

• 1:02:35Speaker 02

  No, you must.

• 1:02:37Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, but I practice those two sentences. Sometimes that's all you need.

• 1:02:40Speaker 02

  That's nice.

• 1:02:41Drew Afualo?

  Like you said, to impress people.

• 1:02:43Speaker 02

  Yeah, I'm like mahakita. Because I love you in Tagalog, that's all I know. People love that. That's our favorite.

• 1:02:49Drew Afualo?

  Perfect. Okay, this last one says that you played high school tennis.

• 1:02:53Speaker 02

  Yes. Yeah, I did. Yes.

• 1:02:58Drew Afualo?

  Did you enjoy playing tennis?

• 1:03:00Speaker 02

  Um.

• 1:03:00Drew Afualo?

  Tennis is hard.

• 1:03:01Speaker 02

  Yeah, I was varsity captain for two years in my high school. Um, I loved it. I almost went to college for tennis and it just pained me because I feel like there's an alternate universe where I actually just like, didn't do video games as a career and.

• 1:03:15Drew Afualo?

  Played tennis?

• 1:03:16Speaker 02

  And I played tennis and I was like an athlete and it's kind of crazy. Like I wonder what life would have been like, kind of off the internet in that way.

• 1:03:23Drew Afualo?

  Right.

• 1:03:24Speaker 02

  Um, I mean, I'm very grateful. I'm I'm happy that this is the way things turned out, of course. Very, very grateful to be where I am today, but it is always curious. Like I, there was a time where I was considering being a flight attendant.

• 1:03:35Drew Afualo?

  Really?

• 1:03:35Speaker 02

  I mean, people were like, how could you do that? You're so short. But it's because like my uncle was a pilot for Delta, so like.

• 1:03:41Drew Afualo?

  Uh, he kind of had. Tall to be a flight attendant?

• 1:03:43Speaker 02

  That's what people were saying, but it's like they put heels. Like I would just have an extra couple inches on my heels, probably.

• 1:03:48Drew Afualo?

  Why you have to be tall?

• 1:03:49Speaker 02

  To, I think it's to help with the suitcases.

• 1:03:51Drew Afualo?

  Girl.

• 1:03:52Speaker 02

  Yeah, but it's not that, like, I could put my own suitcase up.

• 1:03:55Drew Afualo?

  Yeah.

• 1:03:55Speaker 02

  Like, it's not that tall.

• 1:03:56Drew Afualo?

  What are you talking about?

• 1:03:57Speaker 02

  But they wear heels anyway, so it's like, wow, there's so many different things that could have happened in life.

• 1:04:02Drew Afualo?

  Right.

• 1:04:02Speaker 02

  But like, this is where I ended up.

• 1:04:04Drew Afualo?

  Yeah.

• 1:04:04Speaker 02

  It's kinda crazy.

• 1:04:04Drew Afualo?

  I know, that is kinda nuts.

• 1:04:06Speaker 02

  Was there like a, what were you doing before social media? Like, was there something that you were considering doing full-time?

• 1:04:12Drew Afualo?

  Oh, yeah, yeah. I was like, on the, I was a journalism comm major in college, so then I went to school for journalism, but my emphasis was in sports journalism, so I liked, I was the sports editor of my college newspaper for a couple of years.

• 1:04:24Speaker 02

  Oh, sports editor.

• 1:04:24Drew Afualo?

  Yeah. So I, I profiled athletes, like, I wrote, um, like, editorials on them and, but I, like, I did game recaps for, like, the longest fucking time, so I was like.

• 1:04:34Speaker 02

  Gaming recap?

• 1:04:35Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, so basically you just recap what happened in the game and all the statistics.

• 1:04:39Speaker 02

  Oh, sport games?

• 1:04:39Drew Afualo?

  Sports.

• 1:04:40Speaker 02

  I'm like.

• 1:04:40Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, oh, you thought like.

• 1:04:41Speaker 02

  Yeah, it was like video games?

• 1:04:44Drew Afualo?

  No, like, sports. I remember my first beat to cover, uh, was baseball, which was like, literally shoot me in the head, bitch. Baseball is so boring. I like, literally, every time I went, they went to 12 innings. I said, what the fuck? Like, there's no way. So I remember doing game recaps forever, was kinda like, this is cool, but I found more joy in, like, profiling athletes, like, following them off the field.

• 1:05:07Speaker 02

  Yeah, just seeing like what they're doing.

• 1:05:08Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, who they are, where they come from, like, if they have really crazy stories, like, I did a story on brothers that played on the line opposite each other, like, exactly opposite of each other. I did a story on, like, a guy who, um, had to take two years off of high school because he got in a gang fight, almost died, and then came back.

• 1:05:24Speaker 02

  Oh, wow.

• 1:05:25Drew Afualo?

  Now he's playing college football. So I loved stuff like that. I thought that was way more fun.

• 1:05:28Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:05:29Drew Afualo?

  To me, that was far more interesting, because I, like, got to write about them and stuff. So then after college, I worked for my mom for a bit in PR, because it was, like, hard to get a job. Then I worked at the NFL, then they fired me.

• 1:05:41Drew Afualo?

  So, like.

• 1:05:41Speaker 02

  Why did they fire you?

• 1:05:43Drew Afualo?

  Oh, they said it was for a multitude of reasons, I'm sure. Um, mostly, like, my manager just fucking hated me. Like, she really, really did not like me, and it was a, it was a.

• 1:05:52Speaker 02

  Your manager?

• 1:05:53Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, my manager.

• 1:05:53Speaker 02

  Oh, that's an op.

• 1:05:55Drew Afualo?

  And it was a, it was also like a brand new team, so it was just me and her. So it's like, she's like, um, can I talk to you, uh, can we have a team meeting? Just the two of us. Those are the two of us looking, sitting across from each other, uh, cause I was her only subordinate and she was new.

• 1:06:10Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:06:11Drew Afualo?

  Um, which sometimes I think about it because I've had one really, really, or actually two really mean female professors in college who like literally insulted me to my face multiple times. And then a really mean manager at the NFL who was a woman also disappointing, awful. When it's women disappointing.

• 1:06:29Speaker 02

  Oh.

• 1:06:29Drew Afualo?

  But I remember thinking to myself, and this stands true to this day, and it makes a lot more sense with what I do now, which is like empowering women specifically. Um, or especially, I should say. I literally had every reason in the world to be a big ass fucking pick me in my thirties. It's like I had really, I was surrounded by really, really mean women who were awful and mean and vindictive. But I literally remember thinking, I'm not gonna let these women convince me women are awful. Cause women are not awful. And even with them, I, all those women who were really awful to me. I was like, I have empathy for you, cause there is a reason why. Well, there's a reason why you're like that. Like you feel the need to act that way because of the patriarchy. This is the work of a man. Like that's what I kept thinking of like, only a man would try to make me hate another woman through a woman.

• 1:07:14Drew Afualo?

  Only a man would do that to me.

• 1:07:15Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:07:15Drew Afualo?

  And I held on to that. And now thankfully I have my dream job, which is being fucking mean to men. And empowering everybody else. Like I think it all's well, it ends well. Just like where you ended up. I think you're in the perfect spot where you're meant to be.

• 1:07:27Speaker 02

  Yeah, no, it.

• 1:07:28Drew Afualo?

  Women were meant to follow you in gaming. I really do think you and Poki were revolutionary to like the Twitch space.

• 1:07:34Speaker 02

  It is really, like even when I was just in Europe a few weeks ago, like I've literally had like girls come up to me like, you're the reason why I got into gaming. Or you're the reason I started streaming. And it's always like, wow, like I took, I was part of the reason for what kinda changed their life in that way.

• 1:07:47Drew Afualo?

  It's true.

• 1:07:48Speaker 02

  It's really cool. And I know for a fact, I mean, I know the way that you've affected me, like being more outspoken and it's okay to yell at a guy that's being rude to you.

• 1:07:56Drew Afualo?

  Yeah.

• 1:07:56Speaker 02

  Like it's okay to like, you know, stand your ground. Yeah. I'll get behind you.

• 1:08:01Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, I'll do it for you. I do it for Poki too. I, well, and that's how I feel about you. I feel like you are revolutionized the Twitch space, like really you did. And the fact that you've been doing it so successfully for so long, gotta give you your flowers, mama. I think you did a wonderful thing. And you really have like, I, I really do think, representation is one of the few things when I think about media literacy that makes me emotional because I think like, women seeing you succeed in that space so significantly and for a long time. And like garnered the audience you do branch into the other things. It's important. It matters.

• 1:08:33Speaker 02

  It is important. Cause like, I even remember when I was growing up, um, especially in middle school and high school, gaming was not cool.

• 1:08:40Drew Afualo?

  Yeah.

• 1:08:41Speaker 02

  I got bullied for it a lot. And so, um, I just like, I always hid it. I was always off to by myself. And like, I just know there's a lot of people the same way, where it's like, it's like not socially acceptable in some places of the States or whatever. And like, if you're a girl, like what are you doing? You should be playing with dolls.

• 1:08:57Drew Afualo?

  Yeah.

• 1:08:57Speaker 02

  Like, practice cooking, you know?

• 1:08:59Drew Afualo?

  Okay.

• 1:09:00Speaker 02

  I know. So it's, it's different times. I think times are changing. I mean, right now the States are not in a good place, but, um.

• 1:09:07Drew Afualo?

  Well, and they're changing because of people like you, like, to be quite honest with you, like that's what changes is with women who don't adhere to that. And they're like, actually, no, I actually am gonna do it and I'm gonna play and I'm gonna have fun. I'm gonna show other women they can do it too. I think you're so impactful and so valid.

• 1:09:20Speaker 02

  Don't let these random dudes make you not do what you like to do.

• 1:09:24Drew Afualo?

  Honestly, and I'd rather watch women do anything, any day regardless. When men do it, I'm like, whatever. When women do it, I'm like, yay!

• 1:09:32Drew Afualo?

  Well, to wrap us, do you have any advice for any aspiring streamers, women, anyone that's not an awful cis straight man? Who would like to get into it?

• 1:09:41Speaker 02

  I got you.

• 1:09:42Drew Afualo?

  Any advice?

• 1:09:43Speaker 02

  I mean, this is what I always say, like, one, you, it has to be as authentic as possible, especially with streaming and like being on the internet. People can tell when you're faking it.

• 1:09:51Drew Afualo?

  Yeah.

• 1:09:52Speaker 02

  People can tell when you're not having a good time.

• 1:09:54Drew Afualo?

  Yeah.

• 1:09:54Speaker 02

  Like, and also if you're gonna be doing this 24/7, it has to be something you genuinely enjoy to do.

• 1:09:58Drew Afualo?

  For real.

• 1:09:59Speaker 02

  Do it as a hobby, have fun, don't do it for money. Don't quit your job first.

• 1:10:03Drew Afualo?

  I tell people that.

• 1:10:04Speaker 02

  Don't quit your job, cause you never know, like TikTok could get banned tomorrow.

• 1:10:08Drew Afualo?

  I say the same thing. And I was like, and I didn't.

• 1:10:11Speaker 02

  Definitely be stable before, and then do it as a hobby, you know, like, see what you like to post, yeah. Like definitely post what you enjoy, like, like filming and posting and stuff.

• 1:10:20Drew Afualo?

  Period.

• 1:10:21Speaker 02

  But also, like, just know. Everyone gets hate and ridiculed and judged, but if I would have listened to these random people yelling at me, I wouldn't be where I am today.

• 1:10:32Drew Afualo?

  Yeah.

• 1:10:32Speaker 02

  Which is, you know, you just have to keep going.

• 1:10:35Drew Afualo?

  Yeah.

• 1:10:35Speaker 02

  Put your head down or up, wherever you want your head to be. I just don't let these people stop you from doing what genuinely makes you happy.

• 1:10:41Drew Afualo?

  T period.

• 1:10:43Speaker 02

  For you, okay?

• 1:10:44Drew Afualo?

  Love that. And you would know you're a vet now.

• 1:10:46Speaker 02

  Oh, I'm a veteran in this space.

• 1:10:48Drew Afualo?

  Veteran, I'm sitting.

• 1:10:49Speaker 02

  Listen, I'm gonna be like 80 years old streaming, playing video games. I'm gonna be Granny Ray, okay? Uh, I'll be there and I'll be like back in my day.

• 1:10:58Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, exactly. And I'm, I'm gonna watch you do it. I'm watching you ride. You and Poki are gonna grow old together.

• 1:11:03Speaker 02

  Yeah, no, I'm gonna come back on this podcast in about 50 years and be like, remember when we talked about that?

• 1:11:08Drew Afualo?

  Exactly. Period. Well, thank you so much for coming on the show.

• 1:11:11Speaker 02

  Thanks for having me.

• 1:11:11Drew Afualo?

  I adore you.

• 1:11:12Speaker 02

  Come on, whine about it.

• 1:11:13Drew Afualo?

  Yes, I would love to. I'll whine about anything, girl.

• 1:11:16Speaker 02

  Oh, yes. No, you'll love Cutie as well, my co-host. Like, she's also a fan of you.

• 1:11:20Drew Afualo?

  Told me a lot about Cutie.

• 1:11:21Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 1:11:21Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, she's told me so much about Cutie.

• 1:11:22Speaker 02

  Oh, my god, yeah, Cutie and Vanilla are like this, so that'll be so much fun.

• 1:11:26Drew Afualo?

  Girl time. Love that. Thank you so much for coming.

• 1:11:29Speaker 02

  Thanks for having me.

• 1:11:30Drew Afualo?

  Of course, anytime. Thank you so much for tuning in to this episode of the comment section. Thank you so much for my amazing guest, Valkyrie. Where can everybody find you? The two people that maybe don't know where to find you.

• 1:11:38Speaker 02

  Oh, yeah, um, it's just Valkyrie. Um, I multi-shame on Twitch and YouTube and Instagram. I, I don't post on TikTok as much, but I'll be posting a little bit more.

• 1:11:47Drew Afualo?

  Yes, of course.

• 1:11:49Speaker 02

  Influenced.

• 1:11:49Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, exactly.

• 1:11:51Speaker 02

  I'll post more, it's great.

• 1:11:54Drew Afualo?

  Thank you so much to my amazing guest Valkyrie. Make sure y'all follow her on everything and watch her streams. When you go on there, you're like, holy shit, that's a lot of people. Yeah, you're gonna know, because Valkyrie's literally a veteran, obviously. Thank you so much for tuning in. Don't forget, new episodes of the comment section drop every Wednesday. You can stream the audio on all streaming platforms, but the video lives for free and exclusively on our favorite platform, Spotify. Thank you so much to my amazing guest Valkyrie. Thank you so much for watching and I'll see you next week. Bye.

• 1:12:18Speaker 02

  Bye.

• 1:12:29Speaker 00

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