We were lucky to catch up with Faroh recently and have shared our conversation below.

Faroh, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. When did you first know you wanted to pursue a creative/artistic path professionally?

I think I always knew deep down. Growing up, I used to watch my mother paint in her free time, and I remember thinking how beautiful it was to see her create something so raw from scratch. I started to delve deeper into art and artistic expression when I was 10. The more I got into it- the more the word “Art” encapsulated to me. It was no longer limited to just drawing or painting, but artistic expression of the self. I think the moment I realized that when I was 16 was the moment I knew I truly wanted to go into art. Of course, the expectations of life and family come into play so I went the more traditional route studying psychology at university. For some reason, I always felt like something was missing. When I graduated and COVID-19 hit, I finally found out what was missing. It was my love for art. That’s when I truly realized that art can’t just be a hobby for me, being creative is just who I am and I truly had to give it a go to honour myself and what I love.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I’m Faroh, a 27-year old Egyptian LGBTQIA+ content creator and streamer who happens to live in Canada. I stream on Twitch three times a week and post daily anime centered content on youtube. I love to share my passion for games, life and anime with my community so I’m incredibly thankful I can do that as my full time career. I got into streaming very randomly throughout the pandemic in 2021. I’ve always loved gaming content, so I found myself on Twitch one day throughout the pandemic hoping I could find people who also love animal crossing… Little did I know I’d end up becoming a regular in several communities and start streaming only 4 months later. I quickly fell in love with sharing my journey in games with others, and just having fun with my community.

My brand as an individual is very eclectic. I like to bring in all of my interests into one massive concoction of fun. Whether it be cooking on stream, building legos, True crime, art streams or simply losing it at a level in a game I just can’t manage to finish. My content is true to its name when I say that I am a ‘variety streamer’, meaning, no matter the stream, you most likely won’t know what’s coming next.

I truly believe that every person is unique, so what sets me apart is truly who I am. As a first generation immigrant in Canada, my expriences are very different from those around me. I had lived in Egypt for 16 years prior moving over to Toronto, Ontario. So to say the massive shift in culture was difficult for me would be an understatement. In addition to this, I had also lived and seen the Arab Spring when I was just a child, and walked in marches in support of my people. By the age of 16 I’d already seen things most people probably hadn’t in their lives. All of these experiences shaped me into who I am as a person but also who I am as a creator. I bring an eclectic mixture of cultures into my streams, but also experiences most haven’t heard of. My hope as a creator is to truly raise the voices of marginalized voices in the world and help make a difference as I continue to grow and educate those around me.

Im incredibly proud of the community I’ve fostered in my little corner of Twitch. My chat is the definition of a cultural melting pot, open for those to be themselves and share their experiences openly, but also just chill out and hang out. I continue to be proud of myself as a creator and my community for our continuous activism and support of those who need it. We’ve managed to raise 10,000 CAD for charities like International Animal Rescue, and Domestic Violence charities. I’m grateful for the opportunity to make a difference.

Overall, my space on the internet is a place to be goofy, laugh, share our passions but also not shy of being supportive of important causes to support those who need us.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

This is a tough question for me. I am someone who has truly seen many walks of life and aspire to see more. In full transparency, I am someone who struggles with C-PTSD, meaning Complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. For anyone who knows, this disorder can at times be insidiously debilitating. There are times when I have to truly jolt myself into the present to prevent reliving the past. I think these traumatic experiences over time truly taught me what it meant to be resilient. There were so many times where I as a person could have simply given up and stopped trying to improve from that dark place I was in. In those moments I tried to think of my “Why”. Why am I still trying? Why is this worth it for me? Why is this something I should even do?

The answer to that question was at times murky, but it was enough to keep me going. My “why” was my hope for the future. The hope that I will look back and be proud of the actions and effort I put in. I wanted to be proud of myself when I looked back.

I think true resilience is seeing “failure” and continuing to get up time and time again. You cannot fail if you continue to try. When it comes to content, there were several months and streams where I was just streaming to myself. I had 1 viewer, that viewer was my partner. The amount of times that I spent streaming with no one talking back to me in chat, or anyone to tell me that my microphone was muted is too many to count. In those moments I continued to ask myself “why”. I wanted to look back and say I didn’t give up, and I can truly stand here today and say I didn’t. True resilience is not knowing what the future might look like, but trying anyways, and I’ll forever be proud of how I kept trying, regardless of the situation.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

I think a better word for audience is community. When I began streaming and content creating, I slowly became friends with those who would come to my streams. As a smaller creator, its very easy to become friends with those watching your streams and connect with them. Becoming friends with my community made my space a place where they could just come to hang out and feel comfortable. Establishing that bond and focusing on making friends rather than increasing viewers was truly a hidden gift. Through those bonds that were created, more people joined the stream and so on and so forth! When you as a creator focus on building friendships versus focusing on getting viewers it allows for genuine growth and bonds made with those around you!

People who were there in my first streams are still there today and continue to be active members of my community, and even my friends. I think that is genuinely the best advice for anyone starting out. Try to focus on building genuine friendships, not ones for the sake of gaining social media growth.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://faroh.carrd.co/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/farohnic
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/farohnic
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@farohreacts