Meeting Mae Wen in a coffee shop feels less like an interview and more like a catch up with a long-lost friend. Her open and friendly manner puts me at ease, and the memory of her intimidating her LinkedIn turns into a distant memory.
Mae’s passion for gaming and technology was born at the tender age of 12. She began playing Maple Story, an animated video game with the added attraction of ‘girly’ players. She quickly became an expert in her field and began making videos that combined music and gaming on her YoutTube channel, which quickly gained 20,000 subscribers (yes, 20,000 subscribers at 12 years old). After a brief break, Mae took to live streaming at 16 years old, where she would stream the competitive games she took part in. Her success continued on this platform as she attracted another 20,000 subscribers. Besides gaming, Mae recently took an internship at Unilever in Shanghai, where her knowledge of gaming only heightened her skills in the analytics sector.
Today, she is celebrating the first anniversary since the founding of the first eSports club at York University. Holding weekly meet ups in their designated clubroom, 400 members meet to play competitively between themselves and international players. Although Mae admits the club is male dominated, her executive team is 50% female, and she is slowly noticing more females becoming involved in the industry, with games such as League of Legends attracting female players.
This leads us to discuss the subject of women in the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) field as a whole. Mae is quick to acknowledge the inconsistency of encouragement in education as being a core contributor to the lack of women in the industry. She mentions campaigns such as Girls Can Code as helping to create a new and more positive influence in gender equality. However, Mae is aware of the negative connotations of being a female minority when you are successful, describing it as “a double-edged sword. It makes you stand out but also makes you a target for the haters.”
It is clear the positives outweigh the negatives and her continual achievements are not only an inspiration for gamers but for young women everywhere. Is there a secret to her success? “Hard work and being in the right place at the right time…and luck!” Her modest attitude feels inevitable with Mae’s kind nature, but the amount of sacrifice becomes clear when she explains how she has missed out on some social events over the years, but believes that “if it’s your passion, you work at it.”
Not only is Mae a kick-ass founder/gamer/digital marketer, she is also a fourth year iBBA student at Schulich School of Business at York University. She admits it can be a balancing act, but she has managed her time extremely well even with her full schedule. With graduation on the horizon, the conversation turns to plans for the future; with her ideal career being in gaming, she is equally interested in the study of analytics and emerging trends in the field of technology. Mae fully supports women’s empowerment in the STEM industries and hopes to make positive changes for future female gamers (which we’ve no doubt she will).
Mae’s videos can be seen here at Youtube and livestreaming videos here at Twitch.