“I’ll visit some Twitch creators! I could drop some subs in their chat, or manifest a huge pile of bits for them to swim in! Let’s do this!”
Twitch’s “Fairy Modmother” has been around for a few months now, first showing up in April of 2021 to help brighten up streamers’ days with some gifts subs or some bits. The next time we saw them was around June, when they were again donating subs and bits to streamers to help celebrate LGBTQ+ Pride. However, the biggest wave of gifts from the Fairy Modmother has recently swept across Twitch, giving away hundreds, if not thousands of dollars worth of bits, as well as spreading some general, “non-denominational holiday cheer” in the chat.
The reactions from the streamers have all been varied, while still maintaining a consistent level of joy and surprise, to the point where it’s possible to just search “fairy modmother” on Twitter and see countless clips of the cheer that’s been given out to different streamers. Some people had alerts that they felt were accurate to their surprise in the situation, some were speechless, some just screamed at their screens in fits of pure elation. We had the chance to sit down with the artist and voice behind the Fairy Modmother, as well as Twitch’s Director of Community Marketing, and ask about what the Modmother means to them.
Tom DesLongchamp, the artist and voice of the Fairy Modmother (as well as a streamer in his own right), talked to UPROXX about some of the original ideas and motivations behind the character, as well as the design process for the character itself. Tom said that, in a rare turn of events, Twitch came to him with the idea for this character. (Usually, he is the one doing the pitching, he says.) Mary Kish and the Community team at Twitch came to him with the idea for the Fairy Modmother, “a benevolent being that gives gifts to streamers.” He originally had a slew of ideas, all incredibly detailed and meticulously designed, but, as he tells UPROXX, “My first round of sketches were all over the place and too detailed. I tried making them different animals, and making them human was really weird. My wife recommended trying out making them a little bean person.” After sharing that the idea came from his wife, who is also an illustrator, Tom goes on to explain that “The original sketch of Fairy Modmother had a sort-of cowboy hat and cowboy boots, so they asked that the boots be rollerskates, and I changed the hat to a headset.” From that moment forward, the Fairy Modmother was born. But they didn’t have a voice quite yet, and so Tom also delved into how even though he uses his own voice in any videos the Modmother appears in, the character is different from who he is as a person, so it’s still a fun challenge for him to get into the character. He also likes that it seems “a little odd” for his voice to come from the Fairy Modmother, but as he says, it works because “Fairy Modmother is odd.” When I asked Tom how he feels about the general reaction to the Modmother’s efforts, he replied that seeing the reaction videos of streamers getting visited by Fairy Modmother has been surreal. “It makes me happy,” he says. “It's thrilling to make work that meets people in this way.”
Tom says that from the start of his involvement, the Modmother was “always very clear conceptually and never changed.” It’s clear that a lot of careful thought went into what the Fairy Modmother would mean to streamers, viewers, and the Twitch community as a whole.
We also had the opportunity to speak with Mary Kish, Director of Community Marketing at Twitch, about the conception and execution of the Fairy Modmother program. Mary was quick to remind us that this was not the effort of a single person, but the combined effort of an entire team, something that seems perfectly aligned with the perceivable goals of the program. “We wanted an entity that represented 'giving', 'kindness' and 'surprise',” Mary tells us. “Truly, a Fairy Godmother is all these things. A bit of wordplay and you got yourself a Fairy Modmother.”
From the beginning, the Fairy Modmother was about giving back to the community of streamers that provide the endless amount of content that is livestreamed and stored on the site 24/7. As Mary put it, “When a streamer goes live, they are creating entertainment and a safe place for viewers to sitback, relax and enjoy. That deserves recognition always and we wanted to find an extra special way of acknowledging this from Twitch!” When we asked about the process of getting the Modmother live and giving out their gifts, Mary explained the whole thing to us. “We wanted it to be uniquely Twitch, so the live-gifting would be in the form of Bits/Subs. That means our character needed an account.”
They activated the Fairy Modmother’s account, and the next step was to find out who would embody the spirit of the Modmother. “We knew we wanted a creator on Twitch to play the role, and Tom (DesLongchamp)'s stream provided the perfect inspiration. He's incredibly talented (have you watched his streams?!) and his animations gave us limitless opportunities and imagination with the character. If we wanted them to fly, they could fly, if they manifested kittens made out of bits, fabulous. The sky's the limit. Tom was amazing to create with, and had lots of ideas on what the Fairy ModMother would look like. We ended with a roller skate wearing, bean shaped, winged fairy with a heart of gold. No regrets.”
All of this joy and goodwill didn’t mean that this project wasn’t without its roadblocks, however. From the typical legal troubles that plague giveaways, to Twitch mods (and even streamers themselves) being suspicious of a sudden large gift from someone who’s never participated in the chat before. Mary even shared some humorous memories with us– “The Fairy Modmother was actually timed out a few times! One of the ways we combatted this was to ensure that if someone clicks through the homepage of the Fairy Modmother, it can be confirmed that they are indeed a legit Twitch character.”
Finally, we asked Mary about how her and the Fairy Modmother team felt about the reception the Modmother has had since their launch. “It has been an absolute joy. I have seen creators cry, sing songs, give their dogs treats and dance in happiness because of this character,” Mary says. “We wanted to create a character who does something positive, no strings attached, just a simple way to say 'Thank you'. And streamers are so appreciative and kind in return. It makes it easy to remember why Twitch is so amazing, good things happen to good people here.”
It seems like, even early on in the Fairy Modmother’s (hopefully) long life, the original mission of creating some way for the Twitch team to give back to its streaming community has been a resounding success. Not only has the program largely been used to give back to often-underlooked communities, but the focus on a large number of smaller streamers has made it so that the Modmother has attained an almost urban legend-like status. Video reactions with streamers saying things like “I didn’t think you were actually real!'' in response to a Modmother visit aren’t uncommon, and the fact that the Modmother has already attained this status after less than a year of being a part of Twitch seems promising for the future of the community, as well as the future of the Fairy Modmother and her gifts.
