PROMINENT GAMER LULULUVELY'S LEGACY [IN PRINT]
INTERVIEW BY GABRIEL LANGENBRUNNER
PHOTOGRAPHER: BEN COPE, FASHION STYLING: GABRIEL LANGENBRUNNER, MAKEUP: ASHLEY DONOVAN, HAIR: AARON BARRY, GRAPHICS DESIGNER: PHIL LIMPRASERTWONG
There is a certain level of respect and admiration that should go to people who expose themselves in public. By public, I mean in front of the eyes of millions of faceless and oftentimes anonymous people armed with unsolicited opinions and preconceived notions about everything and anything that you can find on the internet and beyond.
When you put yourself out there and become successful, you're like a blooming, golden tree that bears fruits for people to pick and throw rocks at. You're exposed, open, vulnerable and oftentimes you'll feel like the odds are stacked against you. So the challenge there would be figuring out how to withstand the challenges, establish longevity and leave a positive impact and legacy.
In this exclusive Collector's Issue, LuluLuvely opens up about her journey as a female streamer in a highly male dominated gaming industry. She spoke about the challenges she faced and the highs presented by the job - the communities she formed and fostered and staying positive while thriving amidst the seemingly toxic online environment.
What's captivating about LuluLuvely's journey is her tenacity amidst adversity and pushing forward to inspire fellow and aspiring female gamers.
At the end of the day, it's about doing and pursuing what you want, become really good at it, minding your own business, and tuning out the public's unnecessary opinions. Once you know your core's worth, you're good. That should ground you and hopefully shield you from everything so you can strengthen yourself and evolve the way you're supposed to.
I know this is cliché, but just be yourself. It works and does wonders. What other people think of you, is none of your business.
-iRVIN RIVERA, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Lindsay "LuluLuvely" (a.k.a. Lulu) is a trailblazer. She is one of the most skilled and prominent female content creator on Twitch. She is a master and a competitive Apex Legends player who is also one of the first female gamers in FPS (First Person Shooting) streaming.
Amidst her huge success, having more than 1 million followers on Twitch with a huge combined following across social media platforms, Lulu desires to grow and evolve into other creative forms of content creation and collaborations. Her recent Pringles commercial as well as her other recent projects inspired her to push herself further beyond the gaming world.
In this issue, read on as Lulu spoke about her journey as a female content creator and outstanding gamer. But despite her success, there's also been a lot of challenges that she’s had to face along the way. It's the way she handled the adversities and rose above the occasion that's admirable. The strong and positive community she's built and fostered is absolutely inspiring.
You started to stream back in 2017, what would you consider one aspect of your stream you're proud to see that has evolved? How did you come up with your twitch handle?
The one aspect I’m the proudest of is how my community, the Lulosers, has grown. Its very rewarding to see how it’s blossomed and seeing so many friendships develop from within my community, including relationships and marriages. I came up with my twitch handle by playing around with different names including “Lulu” which is a nickname my grandma gave me when I was a baby. I kept playing around with combinations until I got one I liked and thought was “brandable” enough.
How would you describe your stream? For people who do not know of you and aren't familiar with Twitch, what kind of gameplay/content will they find?
I usually describe my stream as the low energy/high competitive stream and my chat would definitely say the same. I’m not a high energy person, I struggle with chronic fatigue but man do I hate losing. I would say that my stream is very laid back, I have a lot of lurkers who just like to hang out and listen and my viewers can almost always expect me playing some kind of a ranked competitive playlist.
After all of my accomplishments from 2022, I decided it was time to level up my career goal to not only participate into playing just FPS gameplay, but more variety game play such as Elden Ring, Sons of the Forest, God War and other role playing games.
Talk about the challenges and the highs that you experience as a streamer/female streamer in the Twitch/FPS community.
There’s a whole host of challenges that I’ve had to face being a female streamer but the biggest is everything I do gets discredited due to being a woman. High views? It’s because I’m a woman. High rank? It’s because I had men to carry me. It gets really exhausting hearing that your success gets diminished just because I’m a woman. Also it’s hard to simply “exist” in this industry because you’re constantly sexually harassed no matter what you’re doing or wearing. I purposely made it a thing to only wear baggy clothes, large hoodies and sweats because it was getting really annoying but that did nothing to stop being sexualized. The best highs that I’ve experienced as a female streamer would definitely be hearing and receiving so many messages from fellow women who tell me that I’ve been a huge inspiration to them to start their own journey and the messages thanking me for helping pave the path for women in gaming.
How did you manage to rise above the challenges?
It’s really hard to rise above the challenges and the hate. People really don’t understand that it’s impossible to just “ignore it” when hate is coming at you from every angle. It’s overwhelming. Really the thing that has helped me the most is reminding myself that no matter what I do or achieve I can never make everyone like me or make them happy, that some people are just miserable in their own lives and that if I stop what I love doing because of all the miserable people on the internet then they win. And I’m not about to let them win.
ou just came off a national commercial with Pringles, do you have a dream project? After Free Guy showcased streamers, can we expect to see more of you on TV?
I would love to do more commercials or even TV movie/voice acting appearances. It is 1000000% outside my comfort zone but I’ve been trying to say yes to more things that are outside that zone. It is a completely different world and the first time I was in front of film cameras like that I was a nervous wreck but it was such an awesome experience.
Other than Pringles, you have worked with brands such as LG, Levi, Doritos, Reese's Cups and many more. Is there a dream brand you would like to collaborate with?
I think it would be awesome to keep working with higher fashion brands like Gucci, Valentino and Dior and even fitness/athleisure brands, like APL Adidas or Nike. But, working on the Pringle's commercial shoot, it really empowered me to develop a sense of confidence into being excited to embark into areas unknown for me and break out of my comfort zone more and more.
A portion of the proceeds from this issue are going to charity of your choice. You are choosing to give those proceeds to The HUB Houston. This charity focuses on being a relationship-centered educational program serving teenagers and young adults with neurological differences. What made you decide this charity?
I learned of the educational program from my friend Ava and I knew it was perfect because I was born and raised in Houston and I really wanted to pick a charity that was local and I knew that they would put the money to good use.
