'Gamer Girl' worked to become a major player - Sun Herald article - 05/11/2017
Jobs of the Future
Jessie James says she has been gaming since she could walk.
The Sydneysider has hosted a number of gaming shows, works with major gaming companies and has a massive following on the video game streaming platform Twitch, but Ms James says being a woman in the industry isn't easy.
"I've been a gamer for as long as I can remember," said Ms James, 29, who lives in Canterbury in Sydney's south-west and is known online as "Geek" and "Gamer Girl".
"My mum and dad, funnily enough, were the ones who got me into old-school PC games. My neighbour had a Sega Mega Drive, which is one of those 1990s gaming consoles, and I would have been four when I was going over there all the time."
Even though she continued to love gaming as she got older, Ms James said she spent many of her teenage years hiding that fact.
"Being a girl made it difficult and for quite a while I wasn't very open about it," she said.
"I had a few mates I played games with, but I tried to avoid it for most of my teenage years."
It was after finishing high school and taking some short acting courses that Ms James decided she wanted to pursue her passion for gaming and combine it with hosting and presenting.
Her Twitch streaming channel grew quickly and Ms James now reports and presents for Xbox at international gaming conferences and recently hosted a gaming reality show as well as another series with former host oftheABC'sGoodGame, Jeremy Ray, or the Jung list.
However, Ms James said she continues to have to deal with constant online abuse.
Ms James said she is hoping more awareness of women in the field and the issues they face will lead to a change in attitudes.
"I'm lucky.enough thatXbox has chosen me to represent them for the last two years, [the conference) is something that's seen globally and they have a lot of female presenters," Ms James said.
"I think it's just about educating people and making them aware that anyone can play, I don't think there's enough of that at the moment."
Ms James was recently given early access to the new Xbox One X video game console ahead of its launch on Tuesday, and said she will be streaming a game on her channel on Sunday from inside the Xbox Stay N' Play installation in Pyrmont.
The installation, which is open all day today, has different gaming rooms which some of Australia's biggest gamers have booked for between two hours and overnight.
Over the weekend about 1000 people are expected to visit the cube, which includes beds and couches overlooking Sydney Harbour .