A well meaning parental figure in one’s life may warn against playing too many video games because it will never take one where they want to be in life. That same parent will bemoan that video games are simply a waste of time. Well-known internet personality Valkyrae would have to strongly disagree.
She has made a whole career out of her love of video games by streaming on platforms such as Twitch and YouTube. She has gained a massive following which naturally lends itself to curiosity. Many fans want to know everything there is to know about their favorite gamer such as height so let’s get to know a little bit about Valkyrae.
Beginnings
Rachel “Rae” Hofstetter also known as Valkyrae was born on January 8, 1992. She was born in Washington. According to her Instagram she is “a quarter German, Filipino, Spaniard and Swiss!”
Her gaming name was once Legend of Rae in reference to Legend of Zelda but she quickly outgrew that moniker. When she stumbled upon the word valkyrie, which in Norse mythology is a handmaiden who leads slain warriors to Valhalla, she knew she was on to something. She added her name “Rae” to the end to make Valky-rae.
From community college to streaming to awards
Hofstetter was attending community college and working at Gamestop when she created an Instagram account based on her gaming experiences. Her friends and followers encouraged her to expand to Twitch, according to an interview with Business Insider.
“I’ve been playing games my whole life, so I decided to start a gaming channel on Instagram. People kept telling me that I should stream on Twitch, so I eventually was just like ‘Sure, why not?’ Hofstetter was very successful on Twitch which led her to expand again this time to YouTube.”
“The one thing I regret the most is not uploading to YouTube sooner. That’s where so many people in the Fortnite community have found me, mostly because the audience is younger there. Kids can’t watch the stream in the middle of the day, so it helps that they have videos to watch when they get home from school or wherever they are.”
She also began playing Among Us and collaborating with other streamers such as Disguised Toast on YouTube.
She now streams exclusively on YouTube and, since 2020, is the most-watched female streamer on the platform. In 2020 she won the Content Creator of the Year award at the Game Awards. In 2021, Ad Week named her the Gaming Creator of the Year.
Being a female gamer isn’t easy.
Although Valkyrae has been able to monetize her love of video games, it has not always been an easy career path. Gaming is still a male-dominated world and when a woman is successful in it, she will inevitably deal with sexist internet trolls. Thankfully Valkyrae has a great attitude about this.
“No matter what you do in life, people are going to harass you, so you just have to do your thing anyway.”
Current happenings
In April of 2021, she announced she was one of the owners of the lifestyle gaming company 100 Thieves. She has gotten into music by releasing a cover of the song “Last Cup of Coffee” by LilyPichu with Natsumiii. She may be considering an acting career as well, having appeared in some music videos including one for “Daywalker!” by Machine Gun Kelly.
Not all of her ventures have been successful. She was criticized for her now-defunct skincare line RFLCT which claimed to protect skin from blue lights from gaming devices and computers. The science was not there to back this product’s claims up and the line was quickly terminated. It was a blow to Hofstetter’s credibility but, never fear, she is still standing tall. But just how tall, one wonders?
Height
Well straight from the source herself, Valkyrae confirmed on her Twitter account that she stands at 5 feet 3.5 inches tall. The question of her height was asked because she posted a picture that made her appear extremely short but, evidently, good things come in small packages.
