Gamer girl takes industry by a storm

Amanzimtoti woman, Meldee Nel ‘Melicorn1991’ is a professional game streamer who hopes to inspire others to follow this usual dream. The Melicorn1991 brand was created in 2018 when she opened her Xbox account and had to pick a user name. Combining her love for unicorns with her name, birthed the perfect user name.

“I’ve been gaming since a very young age, on and off. My parents didn’t believe in consoles as screen time was limited, but I did have various hand-held devices that included the classic Tetris units sold on the Durban beachfront, a Blackjack and Poker game and Nintendo Donkey Kong. My first console was a PlayStation 2 at the age of 19 with games such as Tekken, Olympics, NFS series, Battlefield, Harry Potter and many others. I only seriously got into gaming in 2019 when I started dating an avid gamer and we were able to game together. He also convinced me to switch over to Xbox and this is where my love for Xbox started.”

Meldee hopes to inspire and encourage others to take their streaming careers more serious and help them to build their online presence and following.

“Although I’ve only been streaming for a few months, I’ve made an impact and have been introduced and accepted into amazing communities. At first, I was streaming directly from the console with only a few friends watching purely for support and banter. After a few posts on social networks my channel stated growing and I started looking at how to up the quality and finally figured a way. Now it’s come to a stage where it’s my second job, streaming is now a very big part of my live. I’ve made online friends across the globe through streaming and it’s been wonderful.”

The mother of one was on her way to be the first South African female streamer to partner with a popular company.

ALSO READ: Online safety for your child

“I met the requirements, represented South Africa on an international platform. Sadly in June the company announced that they were closing. Gaming in itself is also a male dominated industry. There’s also a misconception that females would only make it in the industry if they used a cam and even more so if they dressed provocatively, thus receiving attention for the wrong reasons. I’d like to inspire more females in the industry.”

Her achievements so far include being a Xbox ambassador and Xbox playdate host for South Africa.

DID YOU KNOW?
Click on the words highlighted in red to read more on this and related topics.
To receive news links via WhatsApp or Telegram, send an invite to 061 694 6047
The South Coast Sun is also on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest – why not join us there?

Do you have more information pertaining to this story?
Feel free to let us know by commenting on our Facebook page or you can contact our newsroom on 031 903 2341 and speak to a journalist.

(Comments posted on this issue may be used for publication in the Sun)