There's no limit on screen time in the Paterson household. Kason Paterson was only 3 years old when she played her first game, “Super Mario Bros.” She and her brother, Cameron, would take turns asking for a new console every year for Christmas.

"If he got Super Nintendo, then I got Sega, or he got a PlayStation so I got a Nintendo 64," the Compton native said. "We always had to work it out and we only had stuff come Christmas."

Once she was old enough, Paterson forfeited her middle-school lunch money for an Xbox 360. She had only saved enough money to buy the console – no games included.

"I'm not a big crier but I cried that day," said Paterson, now 31. "My dad felt so bad that he rented me a game until Christmas."

Two decades, 13 consoles and thousands of kills later, her childhood hobby has transformed into an unique career in gaming.

Now known virtually as CupAhNoodle or even “Cup,” she is a full-time video game streamer, host, and self-proclaimed "zombie stan," with a combined following of more than 67,000 people. In 2019, she played (and beat) over 160 games – mostly horror and indie. The year before that, she became the first Black woman to host Twitchcon, a bi-annual gaming convention hosted by the popular streaming platform, Twitch.

"Twitch took a chance on me and now I've gotten to a point where I can do workshops to get other creators into hosting," she said.

When Cup first took her seat at the virtual table, she got used to being the only Black woman in the room – both on and off-screen. Years later, she's finally starting to see a shift.

"Once upon a time, there were literally only a handful of Black girls on Twitch," said Cup, who first started streaming in 2014. "Now, we're here, present and I'm so happy to see it."

Black women are among the least represented demographic in the $152 billion global gaming industry. They are consistently hit with a double kill of disadvantage – race and gender. Nearly 41 percent of gamers identified as female, according to Statista. Despite the high proportion of women, gaming is still largely considered a white man's game. It's not surprising that none of the world's top 20 earning female gamers are Black. But things are starting to change.

"I don't think we had the confidence to be out here in droves like we are now," said Katie Robinson, who goes by the tag name “PikaChulita” online. "Streaming has brought a sense of community and the benefit of finding other Black women that are into games and have the same goals and interests but of course it's brought the other stuff as well."

Racism and discrimination are major issues in the influencer industry as white creators are often granted more opportunities and money for creating the same content as Black creators. On some platforms, white creators have received credit for content originated by Black creators.

The 2020 Influencer Pricing Report revealed some hard truths about the influencer marketing industry – specifically the disparities in pay amongst creators of color and their white counterparts. Of the 275 British influencers surveyed, 57% said their ethnicity was a contributing factor to the fees they can charge for brand partnerships. Of those asked, nearly 40% said their ethnicity limited their earning potential – 99% of this subset identified as a person of color.

This, according to PikaChulita, leads some Black creators to accept morally compromising deals to support their careers.

"My community is full of marginalized people aka people who generally don't have the same level of income as the rest of society does," she said. "So, I'm definitely not going to push them to buy things that aren't going to give them the desired results like waist trainers or Flat Tummy Tea."

PikaChulita, who has more than 14,000 subscribers on Twitch, warns other Black creators that all money isn't good money.

"Because we aren't offered the same opportunities as other white Twitch streamers, we will be quick to jump on anything that comes our way even if the compensation is piss poor," she said. "I want people to be more selective about who they agree to work with because it's not always in our best interest."

Despite the growing number of Black creators on the platform, some gamers have expressed frustration regarding the visibility of creators of color on Twitch.

"I don't think people realize how big the Black community is on Twitch because we aren't put on the forefront," said CupAhNoodle. "If you're new to the platform, you're not going to see us because of how the algorithm is set up."

Platforms like Twitch and YouTube have the power to make or break a streamer's career. Most creators are at the mercy of the platform to ensure their content is being properly promoted. Streaming culture places most of the onus on individual creators to promote their own content – however, platforms have the power to surface content as they please through tools like Instagram's Explore page or TikTok's For You page.

"When it comes to who you're going to see when you first on Twitch, we're not there," said Cup. "But we're definitely here and I'm going to be honest, if you can find one, you will find everyone – I promise."