Valkyrae “considering quitting” YouTube & Twitter over social media hate

Rachel ‘Valkyrae’ Hofstetter has shocked her YouTube fans with a huge bombshell — the new 100 Thieves co-owner is tossing up “quitting” streaming and social media to move into business, after a barrage of TikTok hate following a “silly” TommyInnit and Addison Rae mixup.There can be no denying Valkyrae has had a stellar past 18 months. The popular streamer ousted Pokimane as the internet’s most-watched female creator, scored a slice of the 100 Thieves pie in an ownership shuffle, and was even dubbed the new “Queen of YouTube” by yours truly here at Dexerto.Her meteoric rise could be cut short, though, Hofstetter has revealed.According to the YouTube stream queen, there’s a very good chance she’ll “pivot into business and investing,” leaving her online stardom behind.“I’ve been thinking about it a lot,” she said during her April 27 stream. “There’s definitely going to be a time in my life where I pivot out of social media especially. I don’t want to live this way [with her online fame] for the rest of my life.”“I don’t know when,” she added, “but it’s been on my mind.”

The reason, Valkyrae explained, is her place in the public eye. In particular, the 29-year-old has struggled with the vitriol often leveled at content creators — women in particular — on Twitter and other social platforms. “I actually really, really hate social media. It’s scary… I hate it. All the trolls, and hate, and creepiness,” she said. “I just don’t think this fame is really that fulfilling. It’s incredibly invasive. It [quitting] has been on my mind a lot.” That “invasive” beast reared its ugly head recently for Hofstetter too. On Monday, the YouTube star was accused of removing Minecraft personality TommyInnit from the popular DreamSMP server, mainly by Addison Rae followers. It was an odd melting pot of fandoms, and Valkyrae was caught right in the middle of a torrent of misdirected online abuse.

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“This whole TikTok thing,” she said, “I don’t even know how I got involved in that. It all feels so unnecessary, but it just keeps happening and happening.”

Whether Valkyrae actually goes through with her “times up” promise or not, it’s clear she’s reaching some kind of breaking point. “What makes me happy is being safe,” the YouTube star explained. “[This life] is so exposing, and people ⁠— especially on social media ⁠— are always looking for the worst in you. They want to find something bad about you, and actually use it against you. It’s just scary, really scary.”

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“I already have things in business and investing, so I can pivot when I’m ready,” she concluded.  “I have that plan, I just don’t know when I want to do it.”