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Having a passion that others don’t understand can be difficult, but all it took was one mega star to change one teen's life forever.
Gaming - you either get it or you don’t, but you’ve got to admit that it does bring in substantial money if you’re good enough.
You’ve got the likes of Ninja, Shroud, PewDiePie, DanTDM and DougDoug leading the way to gaming streams which has made the group incredibly rich.
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But as a teenager on the other end of the screen, sitting at home and watching, it can feel like you’ll never live up to your heroes.
Well, unless you’re Tom Gardiner, aka ReniDrag on YouTube.
Gardiner, from Aberdare, Rhondda Cynon Taf, began his online streaming journey in 2017, but his life was soon to change.
The 18-year-old was sent a whopping £10,000 by the one and only MrBeast in 2021 and he said it ‘changed’ his life.
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Now, with half a million followers under his belt, Gardiner is living his dream, and it’s all thanks to that one act of kindness.
After his run in with MrBeast, he was inspired to make it a full-time career after he was set a series of gaming challenges by the YouTube legend.
He now earns up to £25,000 a month from streaming, meaning he can afford to take his family on holiday and buy things many his age wouldn't be able to do themselves.
Speaking to the BBC, he said: "I felt so lucky. Honestly, YouTube has changed my life."
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He added: "I had so much passion for editing and making videos. Even if no-one watched it - I didn't care. It was just a hobby at that point and I was really enjoying it."
When he was in year 11 of secondary school, he was enjoying his hobby, hoping it would turn into something more… and it did.
It was when he looked into his chat box where viewers can donate to the host when things turned.
He explained: "Anyone can be in your chat box, people are watching you play, and they can donate, like a tip jar. But MrBeast is crazy, he takes that to the extreme."
According to the streamer, MrBeast ‘jumped into my live stream randomly’ with an initial £700 donation and set him a challenge to find a diamond in the game - Minecraft - within one minute.
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Gardiner said: "He then donated another £2,000 and set me the challenge to create a portal and I was able to do that too."
In total, MrBeast gave him £10,000 and created his own video showing fans that he was donating to a series of streamers in return for setting challenges.
That exposure set Gardiner up for success and now he rakes in 25k each month by streaming, allowing him to take his family on a holiday to Florida and buy himself a new car.
He said: "The whole thing really inspired me to knuckle down and work hard to try and become a YouTuber full-time.
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"Before then, it was pocket money, something to do on the side. MrBeast’s connection didn’t give me much exposure, but it gave me the boost. And it snowballed from there."
But £25k isn’t the max amount of money he’s brought in. In fact, he admitted that at his height he brought in £300,000 in just one month.
He said: "I like to think I’ve been responsible and put most of it away. You never know what the future holds and I could never take this for granted.”
Britt Jones