Summary
Kayla Marie Sims (born August 14, 1999), also known by her YouTube handle lilsimsie, is an American YouTuber and Twitch streamer. Sims is best known for playing The Sims 4, her collaborations with EA on projects such as The Sims 4: Snowy Escape and The Sims 4: Growing Together, and her charity work for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.
| Kayla Sims | ||||||||||
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| Personal information | ||||||||||
| Born | Kayla Marie Sims August 14, 1999 Chicago, Illinois, U.S. | |||||||||
| Education | University of Central Florida | |||||||||
| Occupations |
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| Spouse |
Dan Grenander (m. 2021) | |||||||||
| Website | lilsimsieshop | |||||||||
| YouTube information | ||||||||||
| Channel |
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| Years active | 2012–present | |||||||||
| Genre | Gaming | |||||||||
| Subscribers | 1.96 million[1] | |||||||||
| Total views | 828 million[1] | |||||||||
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Last updated: December 20, 2023 | ||||||||||
| lilsimsie | |
|---|---|
| Twitch information | |
| Channel |
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| Presented by | Kayla Sims |
| Years active | 2015-present |
| Genre | Gaming |
| Game | The Sims 4 |
| Followers | 823 thousand (February 2024) |
| Website | twitch |
Career edit
YouTube edit
Sims started making YouTube videos about The Sims in 2015.[2] Sims' most popular YouTube video, "Building in The Sims but Each Room is a Different Budget" has over 4 million views.[3] As of July 2023, Sims has over 1.9 million subscribers.[4]
Sims is the creator of the Wolf Pack Challenge, which uses The Sims 4: Cats & Dogs expansion pack,[5] and the Not So Berry Challenge, created with her friend Zoë (alwaysimming).[6] In 2019, for her "Simsie Save", in which Sims renovates the game's worlds and characters, Sims made all toilets in her save gender-neutral.[7][8] One of Sims' longest running YouTube series was the "100 Baby Challenge" series, in which she completed the 100 Baby Challenge in The Sims 4 over the course of five years.[9]
In a July 2020 patch to The Sims 4, all cowplants in the game were given the default name "Little Simzee" as a nod to Sims' campaign for the ability to name cowplants in game.[10] Part of this campaign included getting the #justiceforcowplants trending on the Sims gallery via a "shell" building challenge.[11] In August 2020, Sims joined other Sims YouTubers in speaking out against the lack of diversity in skin tones in The Sims 4.[12]
Sims was a judge on YouTube's gaming creator competition show, uTure.[13][14]The show ended August 13, 2022.[15]
Twitch edit
Sims has a Twitch channel with 823,000 followers, and usually streams six days per week.[16][17] In 2018, Sims was nominated for Streamer of the Year at Summer in the City for her streaming on Twitch.[18] In January 2021, an illustration of her cat was made the PogChamp emote on Twitch for a day.[19]
Sims, as part of the team Sandy's Candies with streamers brandiganBTW, Fuzzireno, and TheHaboo, won the first Stardew Valley Cup in September 2021.[20]
In May 2022, Sims revisited the subject of her most popular video, leaving her Sims 4 game unpaused all night, but this time on her Twitch stream instead of in a YouTube video.[21]
Charity streams edit
In May 2021, Sims participated for a second time, this time streaming every day for the entire month of May, and raised $369,000 for St. Jude Children's Hospital, bringing her total amount raised for that charity to over $500,000.[22] In June 2021, Sims raised $15,000 for the Transgender Law Center during a charity stream.[16] As a gamer herself, Sims is an avid supporter of AbleGamers, a charity dedicated to making games accessible to disabled children, and has raised money for them on multiple campaigns since 2020. In August of 2021, Sims raised over $100,000 for AbleGamers to help Steven Spohn reach his birthday fundraising goal of $1,000,000.[23]
As of 2023, Sims has raised over $2 million for St. Jude Children’s Hospital through her annual month-long charity Twitch streams.[24] On January 22, 2024, Sims raised money for the Palestine Children's Relief Fund through her Twitch account. She raised $52,000 in one day.[25]
Other work edit
In October 2020, Sims announced her collaboration with The Sims 4: Snowy Escape expansion pack, creating three lots for the game: 6–4–1 Hanamigawa, 5–6–1 Shinrinyoku, and 2–5–1 Wakabamori.[26][27] In January 2023, Sims announced her collaboration with The Sims 4: Growing Together expansion pack, creating three lots for the game: Celebration Center, Sequoia Cottage, and 13 Acacia Avenue.[28]
Sims also creates content for TikTok. In January 2022, a TikTok she made explaining first-person mode in the Sims 4 and featuring a sim making a grilled cheese was removed for "nudity and sexual activity." The TikTok was subsequently restored and has over 500,000 views.[29]
Personal life edit
Sims lived in Chicago until her family moved to Florida when she was 4.[30] She began playing The Sims when she was 12[3] and became particularly interested in the game after her father was diagnosed with cancer when she was 14.[31] Sims has attributed the game with helping her cope with her father's diagnosis, using it as an “escape”.[3]
Sims married fellow streamer Dan Grenander on August 25, 2021.[32] Previously, Grenander had moved to the United States to live with her in July 2021 on a K1 Fiancé Visa, after living in the United Kingdom. They applied for a K1 Visa in February 2020.[33] Grenander streams on Twitch under the name “duckdan” and uploads to his associated YouTube channel under the same name. Grenander often plays games such as Dead by Daylight, Fall Guys and Minecraft.[34] They often play games together, such as Mario Kart, Among Us and Fall Guys. They live in Oviedo, Florida.[35]
References edit
- ^ a b "About lilsimsie". YouTube.
- ^ Bonfiglio, Nahila (January 13, 2019). "YouTuber makes 'The Sims 4' bathrooms gender neutral, and fans are in love". The Daily Dot. Retrieved March 19, 2020.
- ^ a b c Building in The Sims but Each Room is a Different Budget, retrieved July 5, 2023
- ^ Sawyer, Logan (May 4, 2021). "10 The Sims 4 YouTube Channels To Watch". Game Rant. Retrieved June 30, 2021.
- ^ White, Jeanette (July 21, 2020). "The Sims 4: Five challenges to spice up the gameplay". Game Freaks 365. Retrieved July 24, 2020.
- ^ Mills, Kiera (July 29, 2022). "Sims 4 Not So Berry Challenge". GGRecon. Retrieved August 21, 2022.
- ^ Lee, Jess (January 8, 2019). "The Sims player praised for making toilets gender neutral in new save". Digital Spy. Retrieved March 19, 2020.
- ^ Jackson, Gita (January 7, 2019). "Sims YouTuber Makes All The Game's Bathrooms Gender Neutral". Kotaku. Retrieved March 19, 2020.
- ^ Jackson, Gita (September 14, 2020). "It Took This YouTuber Five Years to Have 100 Babies In 'The Sims 4'". Vice.com. Retrieved September 29, 2020.
- ^ Wozniak, Paul (July 27, 2020). "Sims 4 Devs Listened to Fan's Request to Enable Us Name Our Cow Plants". Gamepressure.com. Retrieved July 31, 2020.
- ^ lilsimsie (July 24, 2020). "THEY PUT *ME* IN THE SIMS 4". Retrieved July 31, 2020 – via YouTube.
- ^ Ashcroft, Helen (August 12, 2020). "It Took Sims 4 Players Of All Races To Get A Promise Of Skintone Diversity – This In Itself Is A Problem". TheGamer. Retrieved August 23, 2020.
- ^ Spangler, Todd (April 9, 2022). "YouTube Launches $100,000-Prize Global Competition Show to Find Next Big Gaming Creator, Hosted by Ali-A". ca.finance.yahoo.com. Retrieved April 9, 2022.
- ^ Blake, Vikki (April 9, 2022). "New YouTube show wants to discover "the next big gaming content creator"". Games Radar. Retrieved May 31, 2022.
- ^ Who's WON $100,000?! - uTure Show FINAL!, retrieved February 8, 2024
- ^ a b Nightingale, Ed (June 29, 2021). "Twitch streamer lilsimsie raises $15,000 for Transgender Law Center". Pink News. Retrieved July 12, 2021.
- ^ lilsimsie – Twitch, retrieved June 4, 2022
- ^ Beveridge, Marta (August 12, 2018). "Summer in the City Awards 2018 Round-Up". Ten Eighty Magazine. Retrieved June 25, 2020.
- ^ Hao, Dexter Tan Guan (February 13, 2021). "Every PogChamp in 2021". Dot Esports.
- ^ Michael, Cale (September 5, 2021). "Who won the Stardew Valley Cup: Results, Final Standings, Scores". Dot Esports. Retrieved October 24, 2021.
- ^ Morton, Lauren (May 19, 2022). "The latest sadistic Sims challenge: survive 24 hours unsupervised in a haunted house". PC Gamer. Retrieved May 31, 2022.
- ^ Alvarez, Daniel (June 3, 2021). "Content creators raised $4 million during the St. Jude Play Live event on Twitch". Game Freaks 365. Retrieved July 12, 2021.
- ^ "How a Disabled Gamers Initiative Was Able to Raise $1 Million". August 19, 2021.
- ^ "Tiltify - Made for Fundraisers". tiltify.com. Retrieved November 19, 2023.
- ^ "we raised $52,000 on stream today for the palestine children's relief fund. thanks for helping me do this. together we do so much good". January 22, 2024. Retrieved February 8, 2024.
- ^ Mercante, Alyssa (October 28, 2020). "The Sims 4 Snowy Escape finally gives Simmers what they want with in-depth behavior changes and an intricate new world". Games Radar. Retrieved October 29, 2020.
- ^ Muller, Antoinette (November 29, 2020). "Sims 4 Snowy Escape: Which EA Game Changers built which lots". Extratime Media. Archived from the original on March 6, 2021. Retrieved December 2, 2020.
- ^ Sims, Kayla (March 13, 2023). I got to build official lots for The Sims 4: Growing Together. Retrieved March 31, 2023.
- ^ Scotti, Lawrence (January 28, 2022). "TikTok removes The Sims 4 video of grilled cheese for "nudity"". Dexerto. Retrieved February 26, 2022.
- ^ Kayla Sims (November 25, 2023). building a christmas tree farm in the sims (YouTube video). lilsimsie. Event occurs at 24:57-. Retrieved November 25, 2023 – via YouTube.
I've never had a real Christmas tree. I guess we did when I was like really little and still in Chicago. But since moving to Florida when I was four, we have not had a real one.
- ^ Kumar, Ruma. "How a virtual world helped streamer lilsimsie deal with cancer in real life". www.stjude.org. Retrieved June 4, 2022.
- ^ lilsimsie (November 21, 2021). "we got married". YouTube. Retrieved November 21, 2021.
- ^ so... i am engaged, retrieved April 2, 2021
- ^ duckdan Videos – Twitch, retrieved June 4, 2022
- ^ Richardson, Nikita (February 7, 2022). "How The Sims Became the Internet's Most Exciting Place to Eat". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved February 26, 2022.