Meet Leanne Hef | Twitch Streamer & Content Creator

We had the good fortune of connecting with Leanne Hef and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Leanne, why did you decide to pursue a creative path?
I started my career in streaming after losing my office job due to chronic illness. I’ve always had a passion for both performing and content creation from a very young age, and this was just the life moment that pushed me to give it a try! It started out just as a way to occupy my time and be productive and took off from there. I love making people happy and I love being confident when I would naturally be more introverted in my day to day life. Having creative freedom allows me to feel fulfilled and unique in what I’m doing, and having the ability to work to my own hours makes my life a lot easier in regards to appointments and needing time to rest also!

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I’m a Twitch streamer and this mainly consists of playing video games live whilst responding to an online chat! Every streamer entertains differently, but my channel centres around a variety of features. Some of the games I play are done very competitively, whilst others I play are just for the fun of it and are done very badly. Throughout all of this, my main focus is always responding to as much of the chatroom as I possibly can. The conversations during my gameplay can be about anything you can think of! Sometimes they surround the gameplay and performance itself, whilst other times they can range from discussing weekend plans and TV show opinions, to offering a safe space and conversation to someone experiencing a hard day. This multitasking can often lead to a chaotic but fun environment of balancing 5-10 different conversations at once whilst trying to play a video game faster than I ever have before. Something I’m most proud of is how I have ensured to keep the same dedication to the chat as I had 5 years ago when I first started. I like to prioritise this and ensure that everyone feels equally as included and important, The biggest challenges with streaming professionally for me have been trying to figure out how to keep monthly stability within what I do, Like any self employment path, things will naturally fluctuate a lot, and so to combat this I make sure to plan for future months in advance and also think of new ways in which I can grow the stream further. Something I’d like people who are unfamiliar with Twitch streaming to know, is that for many streamers like myself, the games are actually secondary to the job, and for most streamers it isn’t about that. In my case, it’s much more about the communication element and entertainment, which consists of reading, replying and keeping things interesting throughout, for anywhere between 2 to 18 hours a day! I feel immensely grateful to have had streaming opened up to me as a potential path to take. I started out when I lost my office job due to chronic illness, and streaming is something that has given me purpose, fulfilment and has even improved my social life. It also allows me to work to my own hours, giving me space for appointments and rest time! I believe there are a lot of positives to streaming when done in the right way, both for viewers and streamers.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
I appreciate what London has to offer much more than I used to after meeting online friends and looking up places to go in the city with them! If I had to plan a week’s itinerary, I would spend a day showing the main sights – Big Ben, Buckingham Palace, The London Eye. A few days doing fun activities like mini golf, bowling etc, finished off with enjoying the nightlife here! A must for me would also be sharing the food options (Nandos needs a try for any visitor outside of the UK), and then because I’m a massive musical theatre fan, I would also massively encourage people to see at least one show in the West End whilst here

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I’d like to shout out my Twitch community for continuously and so loyally supporting me in what I love to do and for offering patience and kindness always, and my parents for being open to me exploring creative paths!

Website: https://www.twitch.tv/leannehef

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/leannehef_/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/LeanneHef

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/leannehef

Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@leannehef