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‘I was bullied for my hobby now I earn £7,000 a month from my bedroom doing it’

BySpotted UK

Aug 21, 2023

A woman who was bullied by boys for her love of gaming now earns up to £7,000 a month from her bedroom.

Natalie Barnes didn't let the teasing from a young age put her off and instead turned her passion into a career by starting a to stream herself playing. The 20-year-old is now the most watched woman player on Apex Legends in Europe and ninth overall in the world.

She said: "There was a group of boys that would laugh at me and call me names, saying I wasn’t meant for gaming, all the typical ‘get back to the kitchen’.

"I was bullied a lot for it by specific people and I did everything in my power to hide it from everyone. It was incredibly childish behaviour and I shouldn’t have been affected by it, but I was in high school and I just wanted to fit in."

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After the relentless bullying, Natalie said she tried to "hide" her love of gaming for a while but as she matured she learnt to "embrace" it. She added: "In college, I still didn’t promote it, but I didn’t deny it if anyone found me.

"I started to embrace it and people were definitely more accepting. But even now, I still deal with horrible comments." Natalie's confidence started to grow as the popularity of her stream did and she even deferred an offer to study law at the University of Liverpool in a bid to concentrate on her hobby.

Starting off with just a handful of viewers, Natalie, from Wigan, built up her gaming profile by staying up all night streaming after school and is now known by users all over the globe. Spending hours on her gaming console, Natalie live-streams games which others watch and participate in by paying a subscription fee, the MEN reports.

Natalie now dreams of moving to the US

Her popularity has meant she’s been invited to participate in tournaments and conventions all over the USA. She’s now set her sights on securing a visa to live and work as a content creator in Austin, Texas, a popular location for those in the gaming industry.

She said: "I’m incredibly proud…Turning something you love into a job is amazing. There are millions of people trying to make a career and I made it.

"I have a community of people that watch me and admire me daily, I don’t think anything beats that. I didn’t know when I started gaming at 11 years old that this would be how my life turned out, but I'm so glad it did."

Natalie draws in viewers from all over the world including USA, Australia, Japan and China and has even been asked for autographs and pictures at events – something she says feels surreal for a young woman from Wigan.

Natalie gets invited to tournaments all over the world

She added: "It still feels incredibly weird. I get asked for autographs and pictures at events, I’ve been handed gifts and people have made edits and drawings of me.”

From her subscriptions and winning thousands from taking part in tournaments, Natalie has managed to make streaming her full-time job over the last few years. She earns money from subscriptions, donations and sponsorship deals. She recently signed a deal with food delivery service Hello Fresh.

And it was while taking part in tournaments that she met her boyfriend, a US-based player called Zach Dennis. Natalie now wants to move to the US permanently for career opportunities as well as her relationship.

She said: "I’ve been trying [to move] for years, it’s been sleepless nights and research on how to get over there. All my friends and boyfriend are there.

Natalie gets invited to tournaments all over the world

"I lose touch with my friends here because they don’t have the same interests as me in life. I’m surrounded by people that genuinely care about me in America and have the same goals as me.

"The weather is also a big thing – It affects my mood a lot being in a dark rainy gloomy country. And the opportunities it brings in the US for my job. Gaming is way more normalised over there and way less judged.

"Everyone’s a gamer in the states, so businesses brands and everything want US citizens and don’t want to venture to the UK, I miss out on a lot.

"I missed out on a £100,000 tournament that I would have placed well in just because I’m British. America is everything, literally everything."

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