Kayla Wanheda
Twitch streaming & content creation is an often misunderstood passion & career path. For those unfamiliar with the art form it may simply seem like these creators just get paid to play video games but there is much more to it. To discover just how complex this passion can be we spoke with Call Of Duty streamer Kayla Wanheda about her journey into the world of Twitch & content creation.
Kayla's content creation passion takes on two main forms.
On the first side, she is a Twitch streamer, who has built a following through her highly skilled gameplay of Call Of Duty: Warzone. Here Kayla often plays competitively & has proven that women can be just as good, if not better than, many of the guys that she plays against.
Outside of gaming Kayla's content creation side blends her nerd culture & horror passions with her cosmetology career. On this side of her passion, Kayla showcases her hair & makeup stylist skills by creating looks inspired by horror icons & gaming characters in a more cosplay style of content.
Gaming History
Reflecting on her history with video games it should come as no surprise that Kayla is a highly skilled player. While chatting to Pario Kayla said, "I remember growing up with the N64 (Nintendo 64) & all of my Dad's Sega stuff... then I got PlayStation & a PS2." Being a lifelong gamer Kayla was able to learn the skills early & then spent the past 15 years training, developing & refining those skills.
Although Kayla has built a following playing Call Of Duty, it hasn't always been her favourite game. Before discovering Call Of Duty Kayla often jumped around with gaming, but a few games hold special places in her heart.
"Spyro is my all-time favourite, & I used to be really into League Of Legends," beamed Kayla. "I like to change things up & try different games. I was really into horror games & survival games for a while... the kind of games that can go really differently depending on which direction you take."
Lights, Camera, Action
While Kayla has been a lifelong gamer making the jump to Twitch streamer was a gradual but natural progression. Kayla started out as just a Twitch viewer but then as she became more embedded within the community & fostered friendships she decided to turn the lights & cameras on herself.
"I had a little community of my own for cosplay on Instagram & had made some friends on Twitch... so when I started to participate in tournaments it made me really want to start playing & sharing that online & building my own audience on Twitch... It's been a couple of years now & I'm really glad I did."
As we mentioned in the introduction there is much more to being a streamer than simply turning on a camera as you play games. According to Kayla dedicating yourself to all of these extra elements is actually the hardest part of building a Twitch community of your own.
"As much as you want to be able to sit there & stream all day there's a lot more to it than just streaming," explained Kayla. "You need to make content/clips, make videos, promote yourself, network [with other creators] & support the people in your community & your friends as well. You can’t expect to just take everything & not give anything back. All of that can take a toll after a while because you need to be able to do all of that as well financially."
Kayla says there is 1 key factor to success, "Make sure you're enjoying the content you’re working on! That way it doesn't feel like you have to jump in & do it but instead you are excited to get home & stream or work on content."
Overcoming toxicity online
Another major hurdle that many female streamers encounter is the toxicity of the gaming community, particularly in the male-dominated Call Of Duty space.
In her time streaming Kayla says she has had people come into her Twitch chat & say things like "oh, you're not even hot, so this isn't worth watching". Those interactions are easily dealt with through a quick ban. It's often the in-game abuse & toxicity that is harder to deal with. However, rather than let it get to her Kayla has used it to create more content & raise awareness for the issue.
"I've made TikTok's purely based on the toxic things that men, or even other females, will say... so you have to have a pretty thick skin," explained Kayla. "One day I'd like to make more content to make people aware that this [behaviour] is wrong."
Follow Kayla’s Creative Journey on social media at: twitch.tv/kaylahwanheda
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