Twitch sensation Imane ‘Pokimane’ Anys broke down in tears after discussing how her on-stream personality contrasts with her real-life persona during an interview with Dr. K.
The two had been talking on the HealthyGamer Twitch channel for a few minutes before the conversation turned towards Pokimane’s on-stream personality, the pressure she feels while broadcasting and wanting to experience more of life.
“Somewhere along the way, you got left behind,” Dr. K hypothesized, suggesting that at one point the streamer had a clearer goal for herself in mind. “As you became Poki, Imane got left behind.”
“I can see what you mean and where you’re coming from,” Pokimane replied. “I think it’s kind of hard for me to think of a moment where I for sure knew what I wanted to be. I’ve been thinking about it recently.”
According to Anys, for “quite some time” she tried to separate her real life self from her stream personality in order to “protect herself.”
“When people would theorize or try to twist a lot of stuff publicly, I’d be like, ‘All they see is Poki. They don’t know me personally,’” she explained, adding that this would make her feel better.
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“The theory that I came to recently is more so that I knew what I wanted to be, but I just haven’t given myself time to identity develop, because I spent…” the steamer trailed on, but teared up completely, ultimately halting her train of thought.
After a brief cry and an emotional breather, she managed to finish her sentence.
“So much time trying to please others,” she concluded before blowing her nose into a tissue.
Pokimane’s struggle as a top streamer certainly comes as a shock to fans, as it’s extremely rare to see the normally happy, go-lucky Twitch star in such an emotional state.
