Today we’d like to introduce you to Elena Guerra.
Hi Elena, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I become a Twitch streamer in 2017 because I wanted to connect with people. Making friends outside of college as an adult was so hard, and as kid who frequented sites like Neopets or Gaiaonline, I’ve never had qualms about making friends on the internet. So because I wanted to connect, I hit ‘Go Live’ for the first time and my life has never been since.
I started helping with Twitch Community Meetups group “Stream Texas” in 2018 because I wanted to connect with those who also did Twitch streaming but in an offline setting. I was an event planner for my sorority, Delta Phi Epsilon, in college and also worked for the Student Activities Board. I didn’t think it was very different from those experiences so I volunteered to help at meetups. By September 2018, I became one of the Community Organizers, with San Antonio as my chapter since that’s where I’m initially from. I’ve been finding ways to connect local creators ever since.
My main goal with meetups is to connect people in what can often be an isolating world. When everyone gathered for the event comes together and has a core thing that ties them together (Twitch streaming in this case), it becomes less intimidating to meet new people. The position is completely volunteer based and we get no monetary support from Twitch so we have to source venues, create graphics (no AI is utilized), do social pushes, and reach out to companies that may want to supply prizing. It’s a thankless job, but from some of the connections I’ve seen form and last, I love what I do.
From streaming, I met one of my good friends who told me she got a position in the Pediatric Gaming & Technology Field in Phoenix so she was moving away. She let me know a position for it was opening up for San Antonio, so I applied and got it. I was the first woman in Texas to work the position and I was the first woman in Texas to receive the Pediatric Gaming & Technology Certificate from Child’s Play Charity. My Twitch streaming experienced really helped prepare me for the position as I went in and out of patient rooms to play video games with the kids in the hospital. I was at Methodist Children’s Hospital for 3.5 years, and then got the position at Dell Children’s Medical Center which I held for a year before leaving the field.
All this time, Twitch streaming remained constant. I would come home and decompress by playing games online for people to watch. As Twitch brought me to the Twitch Community meetups, it also brought me to the Twitch Unity Guilds. There were 3 guilds initially, the Women’s, Black, and Latin Guilds. The Pride Guild was established during the program’s second year. The Guild program is meant to connect creators on Twitch with other creators who share similar identities. Sometimes it can be hard to find someone who looks like you or comes from similar cultural backgrounds on social media, so this is a good program to connect people while also trying to provide direct opportunities from Twitch to underrepresented groups. In 2024, I was able to join the Twitch Unity Guilds program. I was a member for a year before I applied to be one of the two Community Specialists for the Twitch Latin Guild. Being in the Twitch ecosystem as a Community Meetups Organizer set me up to be able to manage the community for the 2026 term.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
All the hats I wear and the roads I wear them on have not been particularly smooth.
As a Twitch streamer who is a woman and latina on the platform, initially it was really hard to find my place. When I joined the platform and Stream Texas, where it was initially was well, a boys club. It’s hard navigating spaces like that, but I continued to show up because I wanted to see more people like me. I wanted to be part of the committee to help make things better for femme and women in the space. I did so bit by bit and then became the Organizer for the San Antonio chapter where I could say where we met or did not. The environment has changed a lot since then, and I like to think with how welcoming it is of all types of creators, that it’s changed for the better.
As a Community Specialist for the Twitch Latin Guild, it’s had its ups and downs. Working with creators can be fun, especially when you’re able to help with education or provide opportunities you know they’ll grow from…but other times…you deal with quite a bit of ego that can leave a sour taste in your mouth. It just is something that comes with working with Content Creators though, it is not specific to this or the Twitch sphere in general.
As a Pediatric Gaming and Technology Specialist, it was not smooth at all. The position is advertised as a dream job: you get to play video games with kids all day. But being in the children’s hospital setting and part of the Child Life team, it’s so much more than that. It was hard being one of 7 women in a field of 60+ at the time I joined. It was hard trying to have a voice in a Technology based field. It was hard trying to get IT at the hospital to listen to the tech needs to make the patient facing technology experience better. I managed all video game consoles, I had to update them, clean them, and take inventory. I aided in managing the ipad check out system, I aided in managing the MDM. I ran the CCTV programming and was the onscreen talent. Eventually we also managed the 3D printer and laser engrave which we used for bereavement support. What was initially supposed to be something the Child Life Specialists did, we ended up having to take on. You don’t go to school to be a PG&TS, so you aren’t equipped with how to compartmentalize in order to keep going in the job. There’s not a guidebook they give you on how to handle a patient’s death and then how to handle making sure you get this piece of bereavement jewelry right in order to give that family some closure. There’s also no preparation in the world that can prepare you for how negligent parents can be. I’ll say the patients were absolutely the best part of this position. Every kid I visited with taught me something new, every kid helped teach me additional perspectives, and every kid I got to see left me feeling more compassionate for others than I had before. Kids were the best part of that job, that part was seamless for me. It was easy for me to connect with patients, most of them just wanted someone to listen to them and be present.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
My current hat is that I’m primarily a content creator on Twitch now. I specialize in playing games that focus on romance mechanics or that have deeply rich narrative stories. I support indie games so much as I believe they create some of the most impactful stories in the video game world now. At the end of the day I believe what sets me apart from others is that coming in to chat with me while I’m playing games (this is according to others) feels like talking to someone you’ve known for a long time. I want to know how my viewers days were, I want them to feel accepted, but overall I want my streams to be a place where they can just decompress while finding out about a new game or two.
What would you say have been one of the most important lessons you’ve learned?
I think meeting people where they are at has been the most important lesson learned along my journey. In all the hats I’ve worn, I have found that to be one of the biggest ways to help me with problems in those spaces. So many doors open when you put yourself in someone else’s shoes to help yourself not get mad/irritated/upset and hear them out. Sometimes meeting people where they are can be helpful, and sometimes your feelings on the matter don’t change, but at least I’ve taken that extra step to try and understand, which I’ll be honest, I don’t believe many people do anymore.
Pricing:
- Be willing to pay creators for their work
- It’s not just a fun hobby, it is a way people make a living now
Contact Info:
- Website: https://twitch.tv/kiwisnstars
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/kiwisnstars
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/kiwisnstars
- Other: https://tiktok.com/kiwisnstars
