Imane “Pokimane” Anys is one of Twitch’s biggest streaming stars, known for her videos teaming up with random players in Fortnite — but one of these usually humorous encounters took a concerning turn in mid-March.
Pokimane generally teams up with random users in Fortnite’s Duo Fill, who are often floored that they’re playing with such a popular online personality.
However, Anys switched things up a bit during a March broadcast, instead opting to create a new account using a different name so that fellow players wouldn’t know they were throwing down with a famous Twitch streamer.
Although many of her encounters using her new moniker, “I am Chad,” resulted in hilarious conversations, one of her interactions with a young player ended in a concerning and somewhat saddening tale.
Pokimane was in the middle of her undercover experiment when she encountered a 15-year-old player named “Sam,” who she quizzed about what he wanted to be when he grows up.
Sam admitted that he wanted to be a psychologist — but his reasonings for the profession were far from the usual.
“I’ve been having bad problems with depression and anxiety since my parents got divorced,” he admitted. “So I’ve been having to switch schools. It’s just horrible.”
“That’s a lot to go through at once,” Anys sympathized. “Even just switching schools is a lot of pressure.”
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That’s not all: the young player revealed that his mother had mistreated him and his family by threatening to leave them to return to her home in South Africa.
“I don’t like playing with people’s feelings, because I know it sucks,” he said after Poki joked about him having a girlfriend. “My mom was kinda like that. She was horrible. She’s from South Africa. Before my parents got divorced, she always threatened to go back and leave us.”
“Oh my god, I’m so sorry to hear that,” the streamer replied.
“It’s alright,” Sam continued. “I’m used to it.”
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Pokimane ended their session by revealing who she really was, and complimented the youngster for being so polite, giving an uplifting end to a heartbreaking story.