Mother leaves full-time supermarket job to make thousands as a celebrity on MINECRAFT (now even her daughters’ friends want her autograph!)
- Staci Northfield, 27, from Cambridge, left her job as a Sainsbury’s cashier
- Mum-of-two is now a Minecraft celebrity, narrating videos on YouTube
- Has 111,000 subscribers on YouTube and 34,000 followers on Twitter
- Earns the same as her partner, who is a chef at a Cambridge University
A mother has given up work to gain an international following for her making videos of the addictive block-building game Minecraft.
Staci Northfield, 27, from Cambridge, says she earns more from narrating her digital adventures on the hugely popular game than she did as a full-time supermarket cashier.
As her online alter ego, Salem’s Lady, she has amassed 111,000 subscribers on YouTube and even meets her eager fans at special conventions.
‘It’s like a double life’ – Staci has found it strange to consolidate both her real life as a parent and also her life and work as a gamer in Minecraft
The mother-of-two uses Twitter to keep in contact with her 34,000 followers and – while she won’t reveal her new earnings – says she makes almost as much as her partner Jonathan Brown, 33, who is a full-time chef at a university in Cambridge.
She said: ‘I got started when one of my friends told me it was a really great game to play. It looked really boring but she showed me a guy doing videos and he made it a bit more interesting.
‘I started off building a house, which turned into a castle, then a castle with a railway, and from then on it was; “I love this game, it’s endless”. You can build anything.
‘I never thought it would be possible playing games for a living, and now there are children who want me to sign things for them.’
Even Staci is surprised by her own success, saying: ‘I hate the sound of my own voice, and I thought they were going to hate it, but a lot of the audience are in America, and they seem to love the British accent.
‘I love this game, it’s endless’ – Former supermarket cashier, Staci, has an online alter-ego called Salem’s Lady, which she takes on adventures in the block-building video game
‘There have been a few people around from the start and I always try to make a little more effort for them but sometimes it’s hard because you can’t speak to everybody.’
Staci gave up her Sainsbury’s job to look after her two daughters Holly, six, and Rachel, eight, but struggled for money two years ago and decided to go back to work.
But while she was looking for jobs online she became hooked on the addictive block-building game so much she began making the videos.
Despite YouTubing as a hobby she soon realised she could make some serious cash and gave up the job hunt altogether.
Staci spends two or three hours in the morning making the videos before she edits them in the afternoon and helps other players with any queries.
She spent last weekend at a gaming convention in London and has had to get used to meeting her excited fans in the flesh.
Staci added: ‘My youngest daughter just doesn’t understand it, she just likes being in the videos.
‘But my eldest loves it, her friends are fans and when she goes to school they all know who I am.
‘It’s been steadily growing over the past two years and then it’s really snowballed recently, I can’t believe it.
‘I earn enough to get by so I don’t have to go to work and can pay my bills, and if I am needing to go to school I can do that.
‘I am always available if someone needs me, it’s a real perk.
‘It’s really, really strange, I have to switch off from the gaming world and be a parent again, but I can go to my children’s school and none of the parents know who I am.
‘It’s like a double life.’
She says she earns the same as her husband Jonathan, who works full-time as a chef in a university in Cambridge
isn’t her sister in law Amy Lee 33????