LoserFruit wants to play with you

Kathleen Belsten, best known to viewers as LoserFruit, is a content creating juggernaut.

Kathleen Belsten. Picture: Instagram

Kathleen Belsten, best known to viewers as LoserFruit, is a content creating juggernaut.

Kathleen Belsten, best known to viewers as LoserFruit, is a content creating juggernaut. Between her 3.37M subscribers on YouTube, 3.8M TikTok followers and 2.8M followers on Twitch, she’s the biggest female gaming streamer in Australia and one of the most popular in the world. So, it makes sense that she’s done dozens of brand partnerships over the last nine years. She’s made quirky videos for cosmetics, gym clothes, the NSW government, phones, laptops and, of course, a wide variety of games. Her latest partnership is with Lego, as an ‘Ambassador of Play’, alongside other celebrities such as Alicia Keys, Yotam Ottolenghi and Peggy Gou, to celebrate the brand’s 90th anniversary.

Belsten sat down with The Oz to talk about the importance of play to her career, and tips for those who wish to follow in her footsteps.

Her journey with Lego started as a toddler, playing with Duplo bricks, building houses. “I would always tell stories about people that felt really real to me. I would create my own high school or reality show and play all the characters and develop a storyline and a ‘tv show’ with it. I loved using my imagination and playing for hours.”

It was from there, and following along that same theme, that she got into making videos as a teenager. “When I was a kid, I would make videos telling stories that felt real to me, like using my own high school or popular reality shows, and post them online. Then a few years later I found streaming through an American friend of mine and I built a small audience.

I knew I had to start creating highlights from my Twitch to a YouTube channel and it just grew from there, and YouTube became a bigger part of my life.”

Although managing the business side of being an influencer is a lot more complicated than child’s play, there were lessons she took from those early experiences that became key to her success as an adult. “I think my time playing with LEGO as a kid really helped me to just go with the flow without stressing about the outcome of a project,” she said.

It is certainly true that we’ve become so goal oriented that we can often forget to relax. Gamifying everything in life with a goal of winning can be counter-productive for relationships, mental health and general well-being. Humans need balance, gamification and goals are important for a lot of things, but sometimes you just need time to exist and see what happens.

Belsten mostly agrees. “Sometimes you just need to sit and let your brain run wild without limitations to be able to find the idea you want to focus on. I encourage anyone to take some time out of their day to play because as little as 90 minutes to play or create can help keep you feeling inspired.”

For Belsten, the acceptance of things like Lego and video games as being hobbies for adults, as well as children, is important. “For a long time video games were only seen as a children’s hobby and you were looked down on for liking them as an adult. No matter your age, everyone deserves the right to play and be creative without judgement.”

“My goal is to help people enjoy the little things more and embrace their playful side. I want to encourage people to play in all forms, whether that be with LEGO, video games, art or another form of creation. Playing helps spark creativity and we should embrace this.”

As for people wanting to follow in her footsteps, Belsten has this advice: “Just start! That’s the scariest part. The scariest part is getting started. Play around with different forms of content, games and styles until you find something that works best for you. Don’t compare yourself to others as everyone’s on their own path and as long as you’re having fun then you can’t go wrong.”

The other important thing is to focus on honing your craft, and building your audience, rather than getting caught up in the numbers that other people are doing. “Do not sweat the small stuff. There will always be creators who are bigger than you, or grow faster than you, but if you always focus on what you don’t have you’ll be unhappy. Treat those people as inspiration and a form of motivation rather than someone to compete against. In the last few years I’ve just focused on making content I’d want to watch and what I think my audience wants to watch and it’s really helped me find joy in what I do.”