“I’m a woman in need of great attention and they like to come on my show and have a conversation with a girl because girls are mystical creatures,” she laughs during a phone interview with LIfewire. “If I saw a girl dressed the way I am, with speed dating viewers in the title, and guys on I would be like what is this? But once you actually watch it you start to understand that it’s all a comedy and it’s all deliberate.” This persona is decades in the making perfectly tailored to excel in a niche she’s strategically cultivated for maximum success. With the stated goal of amassing an “army of simps,” Kiana has gleefully accepted her mission and is hoping to add thousands more to the fray.
Embrace Your Weird
A SoCal girl, she grew up near the beaches of San Diego not too far from the Mexico border. Her middle-class upbringing was accentuated by the iron grip of her conservative, controlling father. He is a Navy veteran, and she recalls having to jump through hoops to get even a modicum of freedom though it was something she craved. The one place she could be free was online. Thanks in large part to the guiding force of her older sister, the young Kiana was introduced to the virtual world of video games and the internet. From Maple Story to Runescape, video games were less appealing as a medium and more as a source of connection. “All my friends played Maple Story. All two of them. I had a bunch of Maple Story boyfriends because I would pretend I was a teenager… I just loved to troll so much,” she said. “I was never really into video games as far as playing them. I think actually playing video games is less fun than actually socializing with people on them.” And it didn’t stop there. She thanks her love of anime for her “really awkward nerd” disposition and for changing her into the person she is today. These virtual and make-believe worlds birthed the eventual Kyootbot she would become, but not without a few speedbumps. Loneliness and ostracization were commonplace growing up, though she laughs about it all now. This isolation allowed her to build the kind of personality that has allowed her to be a successful content creator. Finding her tribe is all she needed. She could be exactly who she always was through the community she found on Twitch. What might be understood as her online persona is perhaps the truest manifestation of who Kiana actually is. “The internet is full of degenerates and I grew up on the internet. It’s really cool that degenerates like me can go on the internet and find like-minded people,” she said.
Kyootbot Loading
Very sarcastic and generally an unserious person, her disposition is an acquired taste. Detailing how she’s often misunderstood by digital passersby, her content is for the people who get it. Affectionately nicknamed the Cuties, whose community is primarily filled with young men, but the good kind, she says. A juxtaposition against the men she toys with in her satirical speed dating streams. “I love to [mess with] people, especially young guys who are super cocky and sexist. Most of the time they look at my stream with assumptions, so they come in and end up getting bored,” she said. “My audience, I feel like, is just like normal reality TV viewers. They just want to see a show.” She had the plan, she just needed the platform. So, she created it. Instead of conforming to Twitch, she bent the platform to fit her. She knew exactly what she wanted to do and how to get there. In less than two years, she’s amassed an audience most others could only dream of having. They say consistency is key, but for Kiana, it wasn’t consistency that proved beneficial. It was finding her voice and discovering the avenue for showing off who you are. A gifted satirist at heart this courageously sarcastic firebrand has nothing left to prove. “I love getting people a curveball of what they expect…It’s kind of satirical in the way that I approach everything,” she concluded. “I want them to know that, in actuality, I’m not really an (expletive}. I’m just playing.”
