My very first job during the summers in high school was an airbrush tattoo artist! Cool, right? Well, years later it went out of business, and I was out of a job. After that, I worked multiple miserable part-time jobs at the same time (housekeeping, cashier at a supermarket, and steaming clothes/sewing tags in the backroom of a boutique). It was physically and mentally draining. I was discriminated and disrespected by both customers and co-workers alike. I was iced out of the girl groups, and they would spread false rumors about me to get me fired. But you know what? I didn't let that affect me. I remained neutral. My mentality was: This is only temporary, this is not forever, this is just a stepping stone, I'm only here to do my job, I don't need fake friends, I will NOT stay here for much longer and I WILL get out of this situation!

All my life, I have been (and still am) very shy and quiet. It wasn't until I started university that I realized I will need to be able to speak in job interviews and there was the problem: I never speak! I didn't have friends, so how could I fix this issue? My brother had just Introduced me to YouTube at the time and I was hooked ever since! That was the solution! I decided to start a YouTube channel to force myself to speak more! During my 15 minute breaks at one of my jobs, I would watch YouTube videos. It was my 15 minutes of happiness for the day. At the time, I was really into heavy metal and the newest album I bought was from Korn called "Paradigm Shift". Little did I know, that's exactly what was happening in my life. Unconsciously, I was working towards a better future!

Did you know I had a channel before GamingMermaid? Yeah, I made the channel GamingMermaid first, but I didn't upload on it until a year later. Instead, I wasted an entire year posting beauty/makeup videos on my first channel LittleMermaidArielle. I was so inspired by the video editing of all the "beauty gurus" at the time and wanted to make similar videos like my Maleficent makeup tutorial. There was only one problem... I don't even wear makeup IRL! I was forcing myself to be someone I'm not just to keep posting videos, and after a year and 500 subscribers later, I burnt out. I knew if I wanted to keep posting on YouTube, I need to be my authentic self! And that's with gaming! So I finally started GamingMermaid!

This was me starting my gaming channel over 10 years ago while working multiple miserable minimum wage jobs and going to university for nursing (Time management who?). Needless to say, this was the most stressful time of my life - but I was determined to change it! Check out the $37 Blue Snowball and the $7 Sony earbuds, but invested in a DXRacer. Priorities? Lol! I started with as little as I could. I didn't even use a webcam for years! It didn't matter. I learned how to build my own PC on YouTube. You don't need much to start, just courage and discipline to stay consistent!

When I started YouTube, there was no helpful information out there... All of the successful YouTubers gatekept everything, so I had to figure it all out on my own the hard way! I had no support. There was a point in time when even my own parents tried to stop me because I wasn't earning "real money" (yet). I don't blame them - they wanted the best for me with their knowledge on the way careers work traditionally. But I knew the future was YouTube. Let's keep this between us, but after that conversation, I disobeyed my parents for the first time and secretly kept making YouTube videos because I had a strong conviction that I knew this was going to work. I knew I could do this and make my dream life happen. I was determined to make a change! Here I was working on my "logo".. as a small creator! I was already thinking big!

When I first started my gaming channel, The Sims 4 was just about to come out, so I started posting Create-A-Sim videos on the free demo! Like I said, you don't need much to start! I found The Sims community on YouTube to be so lovely and welcoming, and so I stayed! Soon I found other creators that were starting their channels as well, and we would support each other by watching and commenting on each others' videos. Honestly, I think this was a huge factor in my ability to stay consistent when there were no viewers! As I continued posting consistently, my results were also improving! I was editing videos on my laptop in between classes in university and would batch record videos on my days off. My channel was growing and I was positively impacting people's lives! But eventually, my content felt stale and stagnant. Over time, I managed to successfully pivot my channel's content from The Sims 4 to other app games to Roblox and then Gacha Life. It's important to keep evolving as a creator and business.

But making money was still a struggle... I never wanted to work another miserable job ever again and was determined to figure out how to make money online. I applied for remote graphic design positions with no luck. Then, I started offering art commissions, custom YouTube banners, thumbnails and emotes to other Simmers and on Fiverr. It was a huge success! My art was getting recognition and more sales were coming in! As my channel grew, I started getting sponsorship opportunities as well. Slowly but surely, things were starting to look up!

Finally, during the last semester of university, I did some calculations on my AdSense revenue for the year, and I had already earned MORE income from YouTube (posting once or twice on the weekends) than I would earn as a Registered Dietitian (which I still needed to pay THOUSANDS for a year-long internship AND take an exam to actually be officially "registered"). Needless to say, I had a "business meeting" with my parents and showed them all the numbers. It was undeniable. I had the proof that it was already working, and if I could focus on YouTube full-time, I can definitely surpass all of their expectations. Of course, I still finished my degree, but once I graduated, I locked in on YouTube full-time and have been doing this as my job ever since!

Fast forward 12 years later - to surpassing 1 million subscribers and having my own booth at VidCon! I have been able to build an empire by doing what I love: gaming! If you are currently at my 10 years ago, I want to show you that I know the struggle and haven't forgotten my roots. And that's why I'm SO passionate about this! I don't want anyone else to have to waste a decade of their lifestruggling to figure this out like I did! I want to be that support for you!

You can do this too!