“I like helping people, I like seeing things click for people, I like seeing them grow, and I like seeing them learn. That’s been there for as long as I can remember,” Rue said in a phone interview with Lifewire.
“It was a passion, but I never dreamed it would become something primary—actually, I dreamed it, but I never imagined it would come true, especially in this space.”
Rue has only recently seen success from their content on the platform, but their presence is far from new. Starting in 2015, this Twitch Partner started as a League of Legends streamer, with hopes of morphing the community into something more representative.
While that didn’t come to fruition, they were able to leverage that idea into a streaming format not dissimilar to a friendly lecture. With nearly 20,000 followers, Rue has transformed their nook of Twitch into a positive corner for inquisitive minds to gather.
A League of Their Own
Feminism and social justice, Rue says, are the cornerstone of their streaming career and what a lot of their content is centered around. This knack for education started at a relatively young age. They grew up in a conservative corner of Indiana, complete with two siblings. Rue was the quintessential middle child. Despite the small town, Rue recalls having big ideas. With a super supportive father and loving siblings, Rue suggests it was their support that helped allow Rue to express some of their more creative side. It wasn’t until college, at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI), where they double majored in women’s studies and psychology, that they came to the feminism that would inform their career and change the trajectory of their life. “That’s a part of why I do what I do in my streams. My life was changed, for the better, by learning about feminism, and I want to be able to bring that and make that accessible to everyone however possible,” they said. Rue’s initial foray into streaming was with the popular MOBA game League of Legends. Rue was introduced to the game and the potential of streaming by an ex-boyfriend and was interested in building a community. Particularly, one built on bettering the gaming ecosystem after experiencing a dearth of inclusivity and a classic dose of harassment. “At the time I identified as a woman…[and] I was the only woman at the tournament, and it wasn’t a small tournament then; the culture was very misogynistic,” Rue said about a League of Legends tournament hosted at their university where team members engaged in sexist behavior toward Rue. “I think it really prevents connection. I realized the women who played league felt excluded from the community.” Rue was committed to changing whether it was in the League community or not.
Teaching to Transgress
Equal parts kind and spicy, Rue’s community is dedicated to making the streaming and gaming world more inclusive. Inclusivity, after all, is their brand. So, when their new community was caught up in an internal battle about white privilege, Rue changed course. Little did they know, however, that was just the right move. “I realized I didn’t do what I set out to do. My community doesn’t even know that white privilege exists. What am I doing,” Rue said. “So, I started teaching feminism, and I took off. Not only was I getting support from a really cool blossoming community, but also creators were giving me support.” They shout out popular creators like AustinShow, who gave Rue their first taste of real success on the platform by inviting Rue on panel-style shows he used to host in 2019. It was an upward trajectory from there, and Rue’s small community became increasingly larger until it reached a point of sustainability. Now, they continue their commitment to bringing a better understanding of social issues to the platform, with streams dedicated to learning together with their streaming audience and other educational content. Rue’s next goal is to tackle TikTok, which has a reputation as fertile ground for streamers to shovel content into digestible minute-long bites. They’re hoping to take their social justice content and market it to the socially progressive Gen Z crowd. “I want to be uplifting,” Rue said. “There’s something so rewarding and difficult about having the Twitch [community] that I do. It’s something that really keeps bringing me back that I can have these discussions and people keep clicking on these really difficult topics. That is core to what I do, and that is so important to me.”
