By Ana Diaz
LuxieGames, a 29-year-old Twitch streamer with a newborn child, has charmed the internet with a delightful but meaningful idea: When it will come time for her to breastfeed her infant, she has a plan to overlay her stream with an image that covers her from the neck down, and make it look like she’s sitting in a hot tub. The funny fix has caught the attention of many online, and is a good reminder of the career challenges facing parents who stream.
LuxieGames streams as a full-time job, and because she doesn’t get paid leave as an independent contractor, she knew it would be important to juggle being a new mom while continuing to stream and make money. But her baby needed to be fed every two to three hours, which posed a challenge with her streaming schedule.
“I was streaming and needed to feed my son, I originally was using a breastfeeding cover but they’re SO uncomfortable and hot and I can’t check on him easily. So on stream we decided it would be funny to do a censor bar originally — and then my mod Tori came up with the idea to make it look like I was in a hot tub,” LuxieGames told Polygon via Twitter.
It took some tinkering, but she and her chat eventually came up with the perfect image to cover her up. It lines up so well that it almost looks like she’s actually in a hot tub or using a green screen. The gag is a playful reference to Twitch’s “hot tub meta,” a practice where creators stream from hot tubs or inflatable kiddie pools to ensure compliance with Twitch’s community guidelines. LuxieGames said that she “adores” all kinds of creators, including hot tub streamers, so the gag isn’t meant to make fun of them.
Twitch community guidelines generally don’t allow for nudity, but the platform community guidelines contain an exception for people who breastfeed on camera. When contacted for this story, a Twitch representative pointed Polygon to the rule stating that streamers can breastfeed live.
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