While I have not made my adoration for ASMR a secret, I’ve had little opportunity to really speak on it for the sake of this blog. There’s a certain disconnect between it and my central audience that makes it somewhat difficult to really dive into. Kind of like football, which I do miss writing about. Despite this, my growing affinity for Twitch was yet another place where I could venture into the territory of relaxation, outside the prerecorded space of YouTube.
The end of October 2020 was nearing, and I had frequented a fair share of ASMRtists on the platform, looking for someone to watch consistently. It seems with ASMRtists, it’s easy to simply tune in and go, venturing back whenever they happen to stream on another day. After all, many can do ASMR suitably enough. Something about the individual needs to hook you; sometimes all it takes is a pleasant vibe that transcends the cozy coat of ASMR.
Introducing Maya_ASMR. (← Link to her Twitch channel.)
To some extent, I wonder if my fondness for Maya and her channel was simply a chance encounter. An impressionable face on Twitch, looking to attach oneself to a community in a category that, unfortunately, has a bit of a negative stigma to it. Searching for someone to listen to, her channel had a certain stimulation about its color scheme, notable right from the still of the thumbnail. Dark and with a subtle blue-to-red color palette, it almost gave off a spacy, sci-fi complexity.
Joining her stream for the first time was, in hindsight, somewhat unusual for an ASMR stream. She was doing an assortment of visual and auditory triggers, as per usual, though there was a certain closeness she had with her chat. Mods and subs and the occasional VIP; she rattled off names and indulged in casual and occasionally non-casual conversations with many of them. It was an ASMR-esque hangout—friends vibing in a realm where one was doing their best to relax them all in the meantime.
Such remains today with her streams, though that alone wasn’t quite enough to grab me. That moment came near the end of that stream, when she began to speak of her own life. Particularly, her mother, and how strong she believed her to be with what she had to go through in her life. As the child of a (generally) single mother, this resonated with me and encouraged trust in her character and genuineness. I followed soon after the topic was exhausted.
To this day, Maya is the only ASMRtist I follow on Twitch. A few others have come and gone, yet she has remained a steadfast option in a pleasant afternoon (in my timezone) of good vibes. Even if she does not typically indulge in my preferred triggers, her voice alone—and the silliness that chat gets her involved in—makes for content that is both soothing and humorous. Like a nice Oreo cookie: the outer shell provides one flavor, the creamy center provides another. Together, it’s harmony.
I did not think I would be comparing an ASMRtist’s streams to an Oreo cookie, but here we are.
Occasionally, Maya will also venture outside the ASMR category. I believe, in the time I’ve been following her, she’s done a few cooking streams and one stream dedicated to pumpkin carving (actually the second or third stream of hers I visited). Even without the context of ASMR, she remains a very bubbly and likable personality for people to interact with. It may help when you have hundreds of people in chat to bounce things off of, but I digress.
Unlike with a few streamers I’ve covered up to this point, I don’t have a very strong place in Maya’s community. I consider myself one with the crowd, a consistent pop-up with occasional input, though is generally a lurking supporter. It’s not hard to do with hundreds in chat and 27k followers, though it’s not so restless that one can’t get their say in. Maya likely recognizes my name and welcomes me in as she does anyone—that’s basically all there is to it. And that’s fine.
In the off-chance that my followers would want to jump into ASMR as a form of pastime, her streams would be a great option. Whispers and soft speaking; tapping, hand movements, name tracing, and occasional unintelligible mouth sounds are some of her strengths, though I always enjoy simply listening to her speak.
A warmness surrounds her that makes the channel approachable and accepting. It took one conversation about her mother to bring me in, and she’s yet to misplace the trust I have in her to be kind and inviting. A consistent theme to the people I follow is that I believe they’re good people with affectionate hearts. Maya, from my view, is just another example of a wonderful soul that I’m glad to have encountered just before Halloween set in.
If any of this has made you interested, I would highly encourage checking out Maya_ASMR on Twitch. If you’d like to see more of her content, you can check out her English and Portuguese YouTube channels.
For all other Twitch streamer odes, check out the Twitch Streamer Highlight Reel.
Be sure to stop by on the 11th for the next edition of the month’s Twitch streamer shoutout post!
Thank you for your time. Have a great day.
The Visualist's Veranda 