Unfiltered, not uncensored: How this Twitch live streamer created a safe space in her community

The internet can be a Wild West filled with anonymity and malicious actors — but this Twitch live streamer has managed to carve out a safe space to call her own.

Speaking with AsiaOne on Monday (Aug 25), live streamer Adria Lim, 27, shared how she's managed to create a community that serves as a safe space, both for herself and her viewers.

"I have a certain set of values that I treasure with the people that I have in my life… that I think melded into my idea of what I wanted my community to be like as (my stream) grew," she explained.

Adria, known online as Adria Hermione, described the process of creating her community as "an evolution".

"I knew from the very beginning that I wanted my Twitch stream and platform to be the most unfiltered version of me," she said, adding that users of social media tend to curate their posts to brand themselves in certain ways, which would never show the full story.

"But on Twitch, I wanted to make sure that I was my authentic, genuine self."

Despite valuing authenticity, Adria still exercises a level of censorship within her community based on the boundaries she'd set early on.

Homophobia, racism and other forms of hate are strictly forbidden in her community, as are slurs and rude comments.

These rules, ingrained within her community, have been perpetuated by her viewers into a "self-purging system" where unwelcome behaviour is called out and removed.

"Because as a female online, you can imagine the different kinds of content people enjoy, for different reasons," Adria said knowingly.

"I'm super real," she added. "I (tell them), 'Yo, that's disgusting, don't do that here'."

Any strange, parasocial behaviours are quickly weeded out, Adria shared.

"I cannot be your mother or police the whole of Twitch, but I can create a (safe) space in my stream, at least."

'Comforting chaos'

These restrictions don't mean that Adria and her viewers can't have any fun.

Referring to her community as a "comforting chaos", Adria explained that her streams tend to be both fun and chaotic.

"Twitch chats love bullying their streamers, right?" she said, laughing. "So it's really about what the boundaries are.

"We can have a lot of fun, we can do a lot of chaotic things, we can make a lot of jokes, but it's all within respectful boundaries."

She highlighted an example of how one of her viewers has a congenital condition known as pre-axial polydactyly — an extra thumb on one of his hands.

The user is very open about it and consistently cracks light-hearted jokes such as how he might win a speed typing competition with his extra-digit 'advantage'.

"I think my community has found a very nice kind of balance where we can joke about things healthily without hurting each other's feelings… if anybody crosses boundaries, I'll immediately (warn them), and they get the vibe check," said Adria.

Today, aside from her regular live streams where she plays games or interacts with members of her Twitch chat, Adria also commits to monthly reflections addressing mental health on her stream, as well as more grounded conversations with her viewers.

Referring to her viewers as "multi-dimensional" and "nuanced", Adria said that these mental health reflections help connect her on a deeper level with her viewers, also adding to the safe space where real-world issues and conversations can occur.

She added: "The viewers bring in depth and humour, but also the ability to engage in deeper, meaningful conversations to my stream."

Starting out as a live streamer

Building the community wasn't easy, however, and neither was becoming a live streamer.

Adria, who studied psychology in university, found her first full-time job in human resources after graduation in 2020. She is also a freelance artiste.

In 2023, she was first introduced to live streaming, but had no idea how to operate a Windows computer and knew nothing about gaming, much less streaming.

Thankfully, she had friends to help her overcome the steep learning curve and she managed to become a Twitch Affiliate — a tier which allows content monetisation through the platform — within two weeks.

She then went on to join the *Scape Streamer Residency and Pathway programmes which are aimed at guiding aspiring live streamers with the help of local mentors in the scene.

"(My parents) were watching me do this, watching it all unfold… and with Asian parents, the buzzwords hit.

"They were like, selected for a programme? Okay, good. Oh, you got this sponsorship? Okay, good. You're being paid for this? Okay, good," Adria joked.

By 2024, she had already left her job and decided to focus on live streaming, fresh from the programmes she attended.

No clarity, no direction

However, once she was thrust into the world, things started falling apart.

"My boundaries were completely gone, because I no longer had a nine to five job to tell me when to start working, when to stop working. I had 24 hours now," Adria recounted.

"I was really unhealthy, and it showed in my life. It showed in my health."

Adria suffered from a slip disc in September that year due to overworking herself and losing too much weight.

She wasn't eating enough and was "physically incapable" of keeping up with her own content creation schedule as she chased trends non-stop.

Amid her burnout, she was even bedridden for a month as she tried to recover, all while wandering aimlessly towards a goal she couldn't see.

"I was just trying to get going," she said. "I had no extra clarity. I had no clearer direction as to where I wanted to move."

When she stopped spending time with family as her health deteriorated, her parents stepped in, expressing concern.

"It felt like I was doing good for myself… we were gaining traction. But they were like, does it pay the bills?"

Reigniting the spark

Slightly later that year, *Scape sent her to TwitchCon in Las Vegas, a convention for Twitch live streamers and viewers to meet and mingle in real life.

"The event really sparked my joy of creating content again, taking it at my own pace," she reminisced.

Over the three-day convention, she didn't chase trends; instead, she created content she enjoyed, eventually getting recognition and growing her viewership.

When she returned to Singapore, Adria rediscovered the direction she was hoping to achieve with her career. She also learned to set schedules so that her weekends would be enough for her to rest and recover.

Today, Adria is a Twitch Partner — a step above an Affiliate — and streams to approximately a hundred viewers each session.

She has also earned the full approval of her parents, not only because her streaming job allows her to stay at home, but also because the freebies from her sponsors are a delight for them, Adria said in jest.

Now, she's putting together an event in real life not just for her viewers, but also for the wider Twitch community in Singapore.

Dubbed The IRL Hypehouse, Adria explained that she hopes the event will bring together live streamers and viewers in Singapore to "hype each other up" and get to know one another.

Taking place on Saturday (Aug 30), the ticketed event, held at Griddy Grid in Changi Terminal 2, will feature activities and opportunities to meet and greet live streamers in Singapore.

Notable streamers include Wolfsbanee, Sherrng, Crazneax and Sukasblood among others.

"We're celebrating the streaming community in general, both viewers and streamers, and it really is meant to be a place for all of us to come together to do things that we don't usually do," Adria said.

She also expressed hopes that this event would be able to continue growing in the future, going beyond Singapore.

"This is just the start of something that can hopefully bring many more Asian streamers and the streaming community together in one space."

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khooyihang@asiaone.com