Twitch star Pokimane explained how she convinced her parents to let her quit college and stream full-time, saying she had to make a PowerPoint to justify herself.
Imane ‘Pokimane’ Anys is the most-followed woman on Twitch and one of the most famous streamers on the platform — but before she went all-in, she had to get her parents’ approval.
It can take some convincing for traditional parents to fully understand and accept their children pursuing non-traditional career paths, and Pokimane was well-aware that her folks might not take kindly to her stopping midway through her Chemical Engineering degree.
However, two years into her studies, Poki quit college and created an entire PowerPoint presentation to give her parents a visual of why her newfound profession was actually more profitable than her degree would have been.
Pokimane’s parents took some convincing to let her quit college and focus on streaming.
“I was like, ‘Hear me out,’” Poki explained. “I did a PowerPoint. I was like, ‘Look at my income. It’s doing this,’” she continued, using her hands to mimic a line on a graph going upward.
“Look at my college debt. It’s doing this,” she said, moving her arms downward. “So I was like, ‘Let me save up for one year. Let me just do this for one year.’ Never went back.”
Despite her income, Poki says her mother still wasn’t convinced that her job would pan out and continuously asked when she was going back to school during the first few years of full-time streaming.
“And then you do some big sh*t and then they’re like, ‘Okay, we’ll stop asking,’” she added.
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She told this story during a live stream with fellow broadcasters QTCinderella and JasontheWeen, pleading with his parents on his behalf to allow him to pursue streaming full-time due to his newfound success.
“Mama Nguyen, just know that school will always be there,” she said. “Your son is doing big things. Let him drop out, just for a little. Maybe not forever.”
“I don’t know,” QT interjected. “Those school streams would hit.”
JasonTheWeen is an up and coming streamer who was signed to FaZe Clan following the organization’s restructuring earlier this year — and it looks like he’s got some big names on his side trying to help him make the most of his potential as an online entertainer.