On Twitch, his lives combine hundreds of thousands of views. On YouTube, she produces formats at the crossroads of the talk show and the documentary. And on the podiums of L’Oréal or the tracks of the GP Explorer, it breaks the codes. At 31, Maghla embodies a new generation of creators who refuse to choose between passion, commitment and influence.
Behind this nickname that slams like a video game spell hides Barbara, an ex-student in economics-management who found a refuge in streaming, then a job. This Friday, October 3, she will be on the starting grid of the GP Explorer 3, the automotive event orchestrated by Squeezie. A way to take his place, again and again, in a world that has never stretched her hand.
Discreet beginnings, a word that releases
“I was very shy, I couldn’t find my place,” she says in an interview. When it starts on Twitch in 2017, the platform is still little known to the general public. She films her horror game sessions in her studio, often in pajamas, sometimes in silence, always connected. What does she find there? A space of expression and a feeling of security. “I am on the internet as in a cocoon,” she admits.
Quickly, his chain grows. But with visibility also come the looks, the comments, the attacks. “I was taking insults because I had lipstick, because we saw my arms a little too much, my neckline,” she says. She changes her look, hides a time under loose clothes. Until the day when the cut is full.
A target of hatred… become a figure in resilience
Streaming, space of freedom? Not always for women. Maghla files several complaints. One led to a conviction in 2022 of a harasser at one year in prison. She doesn’t stop there. “We all lived in silence. I think that today, we have to talk about it again,” she says. This testimony triggers a wave of speaking in other streamers. The omerta is broken.
Far from hindering herself, she diversifies her formats. She partially migrates to Youtube, where she launches podcasts and scripted programs. “I needed a platform where I don’t have to read the comments, where I have a distance.” Now supported by a team of ten people, she builds ambitious projects, partly funded by partner brands. The rest ? Covered by the advertising and loyalty of a solid community.
GP Explorer, L’Oréal, cinema: it traces its route
This Friday, she will not be in front of a console, but in a formula 4. The GP Explorer, imagined by Squeezie, brings together the most influential content creators in France for a unprecedented race at Le Mans. For Maghla, it is a way of reaffirming its place in an industry still too often male. “It is important, as a woman, to show that we are there,” she insists.
The streamer is no longer satisfied with digital. She scrolls for L’Oréal, participates in the series In short 2and now dreams of cinema. She assumes a plural image, between fashion, video games and feminist commitment. “I have never been as much as I do so much,” she says. Before adding, almost for herself: “I am on the internet the big sister I would have liked.”