Women represent nearly 50 percent of gamers and are rising in influence in the e-sports industry. However, they face challenges such as gender gaps and financial support to fund creative projects within their careers.

1,000 Dreams Fund is working to change that — and thanks to the incredible support of our partners, including HARMAN, Allied Esports, and HyperX Gaming, we launched the BroadcastHER Academy Challenge. The challenge provides funds to established female broadcasters to create educational and inspirational content, which encourages and inspires other young women to successfully pursue opportunities in gaming and across the live video broadcast marketplace.

For the inaugural challenge, we’re proud to announce the nine deserving winners who were selected over the course of four weeks. Each winner receives a $1,000 grant towards their individual gaming goals plus an all-expense paid trip to Las Vegas to get a behind-the-scenes look at the gaming industry with the Allied Esports team at the HyperX Esports Arena Las Vegas for a day

Without further ado, let’s meet our BroadcastHER Academy Challenge winners!

1.   Kira S., @iamrebelrebel – “I hope to be able to bring e-sports up to the recognition and business/legal standards of mainstream sports and help organizations with team management.

2. DeShawn M., @HarleighQuynn – “My dream is to be an e-sports personality and caster. I want to be in the best arenas, hosting the biggest e-sports competitions.”

3. Giselle C., @RaineShadow – “I’d love to make indie games and be a full-time Twitch streamer.”

4. Juvylen Obe L., @Obe_Won – “I want to be a professional CSGOGIRL gamer. Winning this challenge helps girl gamers like me to be recognized for e-sports because there is a great diversity of gamers that are making a positive impact.”

5. Emily O., @AbsoluteSodium, student at SUNY Canton College – “My dream is to become a professional Overwatch player or a coach. I am a college e-sports athlete, and I am a serious gamer who focuses on women in gaming. I spends hours and hours practicing every day and I’m also working towards a game development degree. Maybe one day, I will develop the next biggest e-sports video game.”

6. Dani P., @PixelSup, student at University of Utah EAE Masters Game Studio – “My career goal is to bring more representation and diversity to AAA game development through the art pipeline. As an art lead and designer, I’ve always advocated for representation as a core design pillar —both for characters and for world-building. Winning this challenge helps me establish my indie studio’s software bottom line, provides valuable resources to my art team, and raises our work-up as a unit to present at the Game Developers Conference in 2020.”

7. Hannah K., @heyaroo – “I am an aspiring marketer for indie games! My enthusiasm for marketing began at 12 years old when I created promo videos of my favorite games to encourage others to play them. Fast forward 11 years, and I now have a degree in public relations and advertising and have developed marketing strategies for multiple clients. I am eager to go back to my roots and help promote indie games and grow their player base and community.

8. Stephanie S., @Zeloinator – “I would love to be a team manager and/or disability advocate in the e-sports community.

9. Devin S.,@DevineGoddessXO, MBA student at University of Louisville – “My career goal in gaming is to stream and represent plus-sized women of color. Women of color are underrepresented in the gaming community — but, plus-sized women of color even more so. Winning this grant affords me more networking opportunities so that I can consult streamers, broadcast platform executives, and game developers on diversity.

From everyone at 1,000 Dreams Fund: Thank you for participating in our BroadcastHER Academy Challenge! And a huge shout-out to our partners HARMAN, Allied Esports, and HyperX for making the gaming dreams of our young women come true!

To learn more about the BroadcastHER Academy and meet our grantees, follow this link.