Junior CJ Montgomery’s love for content creation started with a game of Minecraft on his sister’s old laptop.

“I was definitely too young to be streaming on Twitch,” Montgomery said. “But I did it anyway, because that’s what I loved.”

Twitch is the leading livestream website for gamers, allowing users to watch each other play live and interact with each other. Montgomery uses it to stream himself playing games like League of Legends or Valorant, but his favorite part of Twitch streaming is the community he’s built with the people.

“My favorite part of streaming is definitely interacting with other people,” Montgomery said. “Twitch streams have a live chat, so people can come in and talk to you and say hi. It’s definitely just the people. It’s the interactions you get to have with them. It’s just so amazing and fun, and you can build yourself, your own community of people who all appreciate watching you, and they just want to have fun with you. They get some joy talking to you and being with you. It’s definitely the best part.”

His love for Twitch and content creation comes first from his love for entertaining people. Montgomery likes to crack jokes – in his everyday life and on stream – which makes Twitch the perfect place to reach people, talk to them and keep them entertained.

“CJ gets along with everyone and has a lot of online friends,” junior Lacy Chapman said. “Most of those friends stream as well, and he likes to promote their streams.”

Even though he doesn’t have a large following, Montgomery continues to stream: he loves it for the community he’s built as well as the fun he gets to have while playing. 

“The last time I played, I think about ten people watched that stream,” Montgomery said. “And a lot of people would think it isn’t that many people, but to me, it doesn’t matter how many people are in the stream; it’s really just the people who are interacting with me in the chat. I don’t need a lot of people watching in order to have fun streaming. I have so much fun streaming, even if no one’s in the chat. I can play games with my friends or even just games by myself and get to be this version of myself, entertaining people.”

With Montgomery’s avid love for entertainment, his future could take a multitude of different routes. Twitch streaming and content creation satisfies this love, but Montgomery could see himself in multiple future professions. The common thread? Making people laugh.

“I think I still want to do Twitch streaming after high school, but at the same time I feel like my entertainment could take me in a different route: maybe more of a comedian type thing, with live comedy,” Montgomery said. “I feel like I have a knack for making up things on the spot and cracking a couple jokes, so it’s really up in the air for me right now. I’m going to go wherever it takes me.”

Montgomery still has a year left of high school to figure out what the future has in store for him, but for now, he gets to do what he loves best: make people smile in his everyday life.