5 times Valkyrae made headlines for controversial reasons

The word megastar fails to completely describe the status Rachel "Valkyrae" has managed to achieve since first making waves in 2018. The only non-Vtuber to rank among the top five most-watched female streamers on YouTube and Twitch, the 31-year-old has dominated the Google-owned platform ever since she made the switch from Twitch in 2020.

The "Queen of YouTube" was ranked the fifth most-watched female gamer across all platforms, with over 16.1 million hours as per Stream Hatchet's annual report. This should not be a surprise considering she has over 3.87 million subscribers on YouTube.

After proving her worth to 100 Thieves as a partnered content creator for three years starting in 2018, Rachel was announced as a co-owner of the premier lifestyle and gaming brand. Despite all her achievements including becoming the first female co-owner of a gaming organization, Valkyrae has not been without her fair share of controversies.

From accusing her friends of being fake to the RFLCT controversy, she has found herself at the center of heated discussions and scrutiny.

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A look at 5 times when Valkyrae became the center of a controversy

1) Leslie's Life Matters

In what was meant to be a harmless livestream that was broadcasted in April 2021, the Twitch streamer-turned-YouTuber found herself in a predicament after a joke she made while playing Among Us prompted viewers to start mocking the Black Lives Matter movement.

The joke in question was made at the expense of fellow streamer and OfflineTV member Leslie "Fuslie," whose repeated deaths at the hand of the impostor led Valkyrae to say "Leslie's life matters" with an LLM acronym. This led to her chat mocking and making jokes about the Black Lives Matter movement, which quickly led to Rachel reprimanding her viewers for making light about serious societal issues.

"I'm going to put it in members-only mode because there's still idiots here that think it's f*****g funny . You will get the karma you deserve in life. F**k off. That's not funny and that's not a joke. I hate that so much."

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2) RFLCT

Considering Valkyrae is a co-owner of 100T and a brand ambassador of Gymshark among many other things, it is safe to say that she is no stranger to the idea of expanding her sphere of influence through business endeavors. However, not all of her expeditions beyond the realm of streaming have been as successful.

In 2021, Rachel announced the release of a skincare line, RFLCT, that she co-owned and which aimed at protecting people from "blue light pollution." However, several community members criticized the product for offering a solution to a made-up problem and even mocked the 31-year-old for promoting pseudo-science.

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3) Adoption controversy

Earlier this year, in March 2023 to be specific, Valkyrae revealed via a tweet that she was looking to adopt a child with her mother. In what was meant to be a wholesome announcement, Rachel stated she would be "financially caring" for the child, whereas her mom would be the one "raising" it. While the tweet was met with overwhelmingly positive feedback, there were a few vocal critics who accused the 100T co-owner of trying to use this announcement for content.

Due to these critical comments, Valkyrae has since decided to keep the adoption process confidential and only shares updates when necessary. While addressing the situation, she stated:

"I was foolish about tweeting a real-life thing. To sum up, I'm not gonna talk about it anymore, it's definitely going to stay private forever. My heart was definitely broken yesterday by the replies."

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4) Wrong attire

In late December 2022, the Streamer Awards co-host was spotted wearing Fortnite x Balenciaga merchandise on stream, triggering criticism from the online community regarding her fashion choices. To provide context, Balenciaga had recently faced significant backlash for an advertisement accused of sexualizing minors.

In the midst of social media uproar and calls for Balenciaga to be canceled, Valkyrae explained the only reason she wore it was that she thought "nobody would be able to see the jumper under the jacket."

“I already own it! It’s not like I’m gonna go buy more. It’s just, I have this, it’s a Fortnite x Balenciaga collab, they were canceled, they had a really bad promo, thing, I actually don’t know the full story, but it was a bad thing, I just saw, oops, Balenciaga, that’s bad!”

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5) Allegations of cultural appropriation

The Gymshark brand ambassador has been called out for instances where she has been accused of appropriating elements of different cultures. These include things such as wearing traditional clothing or using phrases of vernacular words without proper understanding or respect.

The most recent controversy made headlines in October 2022 when Valkyrae was clipped using African American Vernacular English or AAVE during a now-deleted stream. The clip in question featured Valkyrae saying,

“no cap on a stack fr fr.”

Despite not being a major infringement, Valkyrae was subject to a lot of backlash due to her stature as an A-list streamer. Meanwhile, some members of the African-American community did not find the usage to be offensive or cultural appropriation.

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All of these controversies serve as reminders of the challenges and complexities faced by public figures when navigating the digital landscape.