Sweet Anita opens up on coping with Twitch outrage over Tourette’s tic

Streamer “Sweet Anita” is a unique face on Twitch, known for her positive community, good-natured sense of humor, and acute Tourette’s syndrome, which led to viral outrage in early December due to an offensive tic.

During a stream on December 9, Anita blurted out a racial slur — a verbal tic that came as a result of her Tourette’s syndrome.

Despite the obvious nature of her condition (and her subsequent, horrified reaction to the tic), the streamer received ample vitriol online for the outburst, with many — including the girlfriend of streaming star Summit1G — calling for her to be banned from the platform.

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However, after Anita’s condition was explained, both “lilchiipmunk” and Summit1G apologized for the outrage around the ordeal, with Summit delivering a heartfelt, encouraging message on his stream.

While many would understand Anita being upset at lilchiipmunk’s comments, she later revealed that she wasn’t angry at all, but is instead “grateful” for the opportunity to spread knowledge about Tourette’s syndrome, as revealed in an interview with theScore Esports.

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“I forgave her,” she explained. “I took her apology. I have faced a lot of people who’ve misunderstood me throughout my life. I’ve been starved and punished… And I’m not angry. I am grateful now that I get a platform to get people talking about Tourette’s and informing each other.”

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Considering the severity of her Tourette’s, it comes as no small wonder that the streamer hasn’t been banned yet — but, according to Anita, she and Twitch are in constant contact about the matter in regards to the site’s Community Guidelines.

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“I do talk to Twitch,” she continued. “…For example, VODs and clips with racial slurs, and homophobic slurs, things like that, I’ll check in with them and go, ‘Do I need to delete these? Do I need to delete every single VOD where this happens?’…because I don’t know when this tic will go away.’ And they’re like, ‘Yep, that’s okay.’”

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It’s hard enough living one’s entire life in front of the camera — it’s harder still when throwing a condition like Tourette’s in the mix, but thanks to her supportive community and positive attitude, it doesn’t look like Anita is letting the outrage get her down anytime soon.