Hello and welcome to Let's Chat. Let's Chat is a live podcast where I talk with creators about live streaming and the ways that streamers and their community shape culture yesterday, today, and in the future.
I get on the game, have a good time, talk to chat, and just enjoy the moment.
It's what the kids enjoy these days.
You cannot lay the next brick without the one that comes before it. It took me so much time. Time is the most valuable resource in the entire world. And I still want to collaborate with a lot of different communities and sort of be the bridge between them.
Hello, hello, hello. Welcome to Let's Chat. I'm Dan Clancy, the CEO of Twitch. Joining me today is one of our 2026 Twitch ambassadors, Jiara Jade. Welcome, Jiara.
Hi, it's good to see y'all. I'm so glad to be here.
All right, well, let's kick off. And I'd like to congratulate Jiara on being named a Twitch ambassador, which she was this year. She's one of our new 2026 Twitch ambassadors. So, congrats on that.
I appreciate it. I was honored to be asked, truly.
And actually, you were just telling me you had applied many years ago, right? So, just talk about that. Talk about how you had applied and then how nice it was to come around now.
I applied so long ago. I can barely even remember when I applied, but I put in the application. I had a few friends that were in the program at the time, so they just said, 'Just submit it. It might take a while to hear back.' And I was like, 'Okay.' So, I submitted it and I almost forgot about it until I got an arguably ominous email that was like, 'Hey,' it was from Twitch and it was like, 'Can we talk to you?' And I was like, 'Sure.' And the meeting didn't say what it was for or what it was about, and I was like, 'What could it be?' And my husband's like, 'What if they want to ask you to be an ambassador?' And I was like, 'That's ridiculous. I applied for that years ago and I haven't heard anything, so we'll see.' And then I got on and they were like, 'Do you want to be an ambassador?' And I was like, 'Yeah.' What he was right. So,
That's great, that is great. This ominous, ominous, am I in trouble? But you know, nothing. And then we asked you to be on this stream and nothing ominous about that. So, let's go back to the beginning. Okay. Just tell us a story about what were you doing before you got into streaming and how did you get going streaming?
When was it? So, I started streaming in 2020. I'm affectionately called a pandemic streamer. I was already working from home. I used to be a business analyst and a Japanese tutor. So, I would tutor Japanese to adults and children online and in person. And then I also would tutor English to Japanese expats that were here for work on top of doing just business analysis, which is the most vague sounding job ever, but it was pretty basic. And once we were in lockdown and my husband was an essential worker, so he was always gone and I had a toddler and no other adults to talk to. So, at the time, my husband really enjoyed watching Magic the Gathering, primarily VODs, whenever he had some free time. So, that's how I found out about Twitch. And I was like, 'That's a live streaming platform, right?' And he was like, 'Yeah.' And I was like, 'Do you think if I went live on there, I'd have some people to talk to?' And he was like, 'Sure.' And I already had a camera because I was an online tutor. I had a mic. And he was like, 'What do you want to play?' And I was like, 'I want to play Breath of the Wild because that's the only game that I was playing at the time.' So, he went and he bought me a capture card the next day. And I went live the next day having never watched a stream myself before.
So, yeah, there was zero thought went into it at all. The first couple days I didn't even have a battery for my camera, like a plug-in one. So, the camera would die halfway through stream and I would just keep streaming with a black box and just my voice. I'd be like, 'Sorry guys, I'm still here. Sorry about that.' And the first couple days, I didn't even know how to open up chat. I think three days in I opened it up and people were trying to talk to me and I didn't realize. I was like
And you're like, 'Wow, who are those people?'
I was like, 'Oh my gosh, okay, next time I'll open that.' So, I really had no idea what I was doing. It was just for the fun of it and I had a great time.
And talk to me about your journey in terms of your audience and how that has grown over time and when it sort of transitioned into being something that you can be doing as much as you're doing now.
Wow. I think I have a kind of unorthodox story. It all happened really fast. I started streaming in August of 2020 and I quit my job in November.
Really really quickly. But when I started I was streaming I was having so much fun. I was streaming every single day for about 3 hours and my audience was growing by one average viewer every day as I was growing and I was like this is fun. And so by the first couple weeks I'd have like 12 people, 15 people. And we made a bet with the community that I was growing that if we got to 300 followers in 30 days that I would do a cosplay for them because that's what they asked me to do. And we hit 300 followers in 30 days and a couple months later my husband was like, 'You are good at this. You should do this. You should just make this your job.' And I was like, 'That's really scary.' Because we're not making any money from it right now. And he was like, 'I think that you could do something really good with this. And I can support us while you figure it out, so you should quit.' And it took about a month of him convincing me and then he convinced me and I quit. And I was like, 'Okay, let's do this.' So, yeah.
Wow. So, talk about one thing that interestingly I haven't talked with anyone on this podcast and in general I don't hear a lot of people talking about, since you're a mom and you talk about that. So talk about how streaming fits or where the challenges are in terms of being a mom versus a traditional job.
I think streaming has afforded me a flexibility that I never had before. When I worked a traditional job in the past before work from home became really prevalent, there was a point in my life where I would have to wake up at 6:00 a.m., feed my daughter, drive an hour and a half commute, and then my husband would take her to daycare after I was already gone. And then because I got off a little after 5:00 and I was so far from work, but he was an essential worker, so his schedule was into the night, she would be the last one to get picked up from daycare. And she was always the last one there and I hated it because I never got to see her. But now that streaming and content creation has been my job for the better part of five or six years, I have been able to be at every single school event, help her with every single costume and themed week. We've never missed anything. Even if they just tell us like, 'Hey, next week at 10:00 we're having breakfast with moms.' Or I'm like, 'Wish you would have given me more notice, but I'll be there.' So, it's really nice. I mean, I have a really supportive partner as well who can, our schedule is such that he picks her up from school while I'm still live, things like that. But it's fantastic. Also, she's a really big gamer and she's finally reaching the age where she realizes what it is that I'm doing. So, I've been doing it since she was really young before she could understand it. And it gives me a lot of cool mom points for sure.
Yeah. And those cool mom points I think will go up drastically when she gets into middle school and she'll be like, 'Yeah, my mom's a streamer. Get over it.' You know? Yeah. I've often thought that and that's one thing that often isn't talked about is that as you start laying out what works in your life and you want to have a family, that streaming is a very conducive way that if you want, as a mom with all the responsibilities that goes with being a mom, it makes it much easier to blend streaming with all that you want to be doing as a mom.
I think you can do it. It's definitely not as common. People are always a little surprised. For example, because my husband is our videographer and our editor and we work together now. Whenever we go to things like TwitchCon or we recently were at TennoCon up in Canada and just various conventions, she's always with us. So, people that have followed me on my journey have seen my daughter grow up because she's always at the conventions. And we've been lucky where we've done some of the TwitchCon parties, things with Xbox and things. We get special permission to bring her in because they're just so used to seeing her. And some people are like, you think that having a child can hinder you, but a lot of people in this industry are very accommodating to that as long as you're willing to ask. So,
It's also changed. We've done TwitchCon EU. We've done Family Day on Sunday at TwitchCon. And really, it's mostly to meet the needs of creators that have kids and that are coming to TwitchCon. But then make one of the days where you encourage them to bring their kids, that way more creators with kids or not just creators, but community members because I think more and more it's just much more common now that Twitch has been around for a while. You have more streamers and also we attract people at different stages. So, you have more streamers and creators that have kids and it's just something that doesn't get focused on or talked about as much.
Yeah, it's nice. She's always been there. We have to do the special thing where you have a ticket attached to the parent and they're always really accommodating. She loves TwitchCon, so she
So, let's talk about your content. For those people who are not familiar with you, go ahead and give us a quick description of the type of stuff you love to create.
Sure. So, I'm a variety streamer on Twitch and across pretty much every single platform. And I'm also a cosplayer. I started off doing both of those things at the exact same time, which a lot of people don't know. Technically, Twitch was 30 days earlier since I started cosplaying as a bet to my Twitch community. And I primarily do content surrounding RPGs. So, right now I'm playing Pokemon, but I also just finished Horizon Zero Dawn, Digimon. I'll be starting Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth. I finished the whole Kingdom Hearts series, almost every Final Fantasy game except for the new ones. I just really like games with story. We did Expedition 33 a couple months ago. That was fantastic.
Oh, that's one that I'm not a gamer. Although it's not that I don't enjoy gaming. It's probably not different from you. I didn't grow up gaming because there weren't consoles when I was younger. I'm at that age. But Expedition 33 is one of these games I'm kind of like, 'Oh, I really want to play it. I've heard such good things. I bet I'd enjoy it.'
It's really good. Yeah, I've even recommended it to my parents who don't play games, and I'm like, 'It's just a really good story, so you should try it.' But yeah, I do that across platforms and sometimes I cosplay from the video games that I play. Final Fantasy being one of the biggest runs of cosplays and a lot of Zelda cosplays. I love Zelda. I've also done all of the Sailor Moon Senshi, all nine of them. So, yeah, I just do all of that. And then you can find my playthroughs. I put the entire playthrough on all platforms and I post clips of me reacting everywhere. I like to play things that I've never played before that a lot of people have so I can give people the nostalgia kick, and that feeling when you finish a game and you're just like, 'I wish I could experience that again for the first time.' All of my playthroughs are 100% blind so that I can deliver that experience for the first time without any help, that vibe that people are missing once they finish the game. So, they can come to my channel and see it through my perspective in that way.
So, talk about your cosplay because you didn't cosplay before you were a streamer. Right. And then what brought you into cosplaying and how much time do you spend doing cosplay now?
Wow. So, I started cosplay because of the bet with my community and at the time I was playing Breath of the Wild. So, they were like, 'Well, you should do Zelda.' And I was like, 'I've never done a cosplay before.' I'd been to a few conventions and I'd done some casual cosplay work. Like I did a school girl from a show, but I'd never done a full costume. But I looked up on Amazon that I could buy it. So, I bought it and I went to Etsy and I bought some elf ears and I went out into my backyard and took pictures as part of the bet for my community. And it was right around Halloween. So, I also joined a couple Halloween contests with it and me and a few friends won those and it was fun and I just really liked it so much that I started ordering more cosplays. I was just like, 'I feel so comfortable. I'm having a lot of fun in a way I've never really had before.' And I started off buying a lot of things. So, I would buy the wigs and I would buy the costumes. And then eventually I would get to a point where I would buy the costume and I was like, 'Well, I don't really like the headpiece that's included with this, so I'll just make it instead. I'll make my own. I'll use the base, but then I'll make the accessories.' Or I get a costume, be like, 'I like the top, but I don't like the pants, so I'll make my own pants.' Or I'd be like, 'I don't like this wig, so I'll style my own wig.' I want something that fits me a little bit better and makes me feel a little bit more comfortable. And eventually, I got to a point where I was cosplaying characters that didn't have pre-made costumes or I got a little pickier, if I'm being honest, and I was like, 'I don't really like the quality of this costume. I'd rather just make it from scratch.' So I taught myself how to sew and how to craft and foam and how to do armor and everything like that. My husband
And a lot of this, do you do it on stream? Meaning the sewing? You don't do the sewing or the creation?
No, I've always done purely gaming. But people, if they wanted to see what I was doing for cosplay, would follow me on the other platforms on my short form stuff.
Yeah. So, filming it, my process is not very organized. Never has been nor aesthetic. So, I was never doing it live, but people would see the end result of the cosplay and then usually live I'll talk to them about what I'm cosplaying or there is something about having a reveal.
There's something about the reveal of, 'Oh wow,' you know.
Yeah, it's really fun that way to just be able to show up and be like, 'This is the new cosplay.' So, I usually will on stream be like, 'This is what I'm working on. I can't wait for you guys to see it.' And it does kind of tease it a little bit. So then if you were to give me advice, you started just buying from Amazon because one of the things I've often thought is, 'Oh, I should go to a convention in cosplay at some point. I haven't done it.' And do you think getting started, like Amazon's a good place to buy the stuff or is it like, 'No, you should go to this site, that's where you get the good stuff'? Or really, Amazon is a fine place to get started on it. I think that the hardest part about getting started in cosplay is the decision paralysis. Whatever you have access to, just go there. If Amazon is the easy place for you to access, there are a few cosplay sites that I'm a decent fan of as well, depending on what you're looking for because they have different specialties as far as fandoms. But you can even do cosplays entirely with thrifted items as well. But sometimes I tell people it'll be easier to talk yourself into it if you just buy the costume and you just put it on.
And that will give you the confidence and it almost takes away the anxiety of cosplay because you bought it, you put it on, you look nice, you're kind of excited about it, and then you're already starting to think about the next one you want to do and how maybe next time I'll get this or I'll buy this or I'll make this part. And so the biggest hurdle is just doing it the first time. So, whatever you need to do to get you in the costume the first time, whether you want to make it or whether you buy it, just do that. And for me, buying it was the gateway for me.
All right. So, let's talk about your different platforms because you use multiple platforms in terms of the content you create. So, first of all, for everyone, just describe how you think of the different platforms and which ones are your primary platforms that you use for your community.
Okay. So, I live stream on Twitch and YouTube. And YouTube is also where I have a YouTube channel. And then I also do short form on YouTube and short form on TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook. And I used to do Twitter and Bluesky, but not as much anymore.
Okay. I'm exhausted just thinking of the posting. Okay. So, let's focus for a second. I'm going to focus on three format types. Obviously you've got live, which I think on Twitch, then I'll call it mid-length which will be your YouTube video, five to 20 minutes, and then shorts, reels, TikTok, which I'll describe as shorts. As you think of your content, outside of live, how much do you invest in short form versus what I'll call mid form?
Now, zero. All of my content is derived from my live stream. So, I take the live stream and we take moments from the live stream and we use those clips and we post those across platforms, very minimally edited to give people the impression of what it's like to just come to the stream. But they're really short tidbits, maybe 30 seconds max, so that people will want to know more and they want to actually come to the stream to see and be able to interact and talk with me. And then on YouTube, we do the same thing. Although sometimes we'll take, for example, if there's a boss fight in a game and I did it live, then my husband will clip that fight and he would put that as an individual YouTube video.
As an individual YouTube video. So what you do is, for what I'll call YouTube videos versus YouTube shorts, you don't edit the whole stream. You find a sequence of a stream that you think, 'Oh, this is a boss fight. I want to put this up as a YouTube video.' And then whenever there's a segment of a stream that you think works in mid form, then you get that segment, edit a little bit, put it up.
Correct. So that's what we tend to do. We don't do it too often. We could definitely do it more, but as you mentioned, we are on a lot of platforms, so we make a lot of content, but that's primarily what we do. That way, for me, it feels like as long as I'm live, I'm making content and I have a bunch of content that I can reach for and turn into a bunch of different formats should that be necessary.
