Twitch has allowed Alanna to transform their life, by reaching a global audience with their music while working from the comfort of home. As a person with disabilities, Sterling has found that this career path has enabled them to overcome many barriers they’ve faced in order to flourish as an established artist and content creator.

Alanna has amassed a loyal following of nearly 50k people who tune in for their music, art, gaming, makeup & cosplay, cooking, live shows, and variety streams. They have an online jukebox of 500 songs, including dozens of original compositions, that viewers can request to be performed live during their stream.

Alanna debuted their streaming career in March 2018 with League of Legends under the alias ‘MermaidUnicorn’ aka Merms, playing ukulele and singing in between game matches. In one week, they reached Affiliate. Seeing their musical talent, a fan suggested streaming just music instead of gaming. At the time, there was no category for Music on Twitch - it was either gaming or IRL. Merms switched over to broadcast music in IRL, performing covers and originals on guitar and piano as their fan base grew.

After being featured on AustenTV (previously RajjPatel) talent show, MermaidUnicorn became an overnight success gaining over a thousand followers in a day. Their channel continued to grow and they swiftly became a Twitch Partner in October 2018, just in time for their first Twitch Con, where they performed at the Kappa Cabana stage. They also were personally invited to Twitch headquarters for a private tour and to be a beta tester for Twitch Sings, helping in the games development.

Twitch Sings was an karaoke app where users could customize their avatar, upload videos of them singing a song and duet with other uploads. This connected streamers and viewers across the world - you could sing with your favourite streamer virtually. (it truly was the best thing Twitch has ever done). Mermaid’s rainbow hair, unicorn horn, colourful outfits, and powerhouse voice made them increasingly popular in the game. Many famous streamers dueted Merms song beds, and Merms even had a legendary duet with Jack Black for charity singing ACDC Its a Long Way To the Top.

After months of beta testing and the app being used by more and more users, Twitch announced their first Twitch Sings karaoke competition called Stream Star. Streamers auditioned by sending in a video of them singing a song using the app, then Twitch staff picked the best ones to move forward to the semi-finals. The winner would receive $20,000. MermaidUnicorn stood out from the crowd and was chosen. By popular user vote, they moved on to the finals which took place at the first ever EU Twitch Con in Berlin, Germany, April 2019. Merms performed a flawless version of Rise Up by Andra Day in the Glitch theatre for a crowd of thousands, with an additional 40,000 viewers watching online. The winner was decided by user vote, and ultimately Merms came 2nd place, losing to famous German streamer and voice actor, Lara Loft.

When Twitch announced there would be a second season of Stream Star at TwitchCon2019, Merms submitted their video of them singing If I Aint Got U. They made it through to the semi-finals, then submitted an insane cover of Bang Bang by Jessi J, Ariana Grande and Nikki Minaj, which garnered the popular vote to send them to the finals. Leading up to Twitch Con, Merms was battling a sinus infection which progressed into a throat infection and laryngitis. By the 2nd day of the convention, their voice was lost, and they had to consider bowing out of the competition.

Ultimately, they decided to do their best under the conditions and seize the opportunity. By some powerful unicorn magic, Merms was able to perform a heartwrenching rendition of Praying by Ke$ha, which earned first place as determined by judges and popular vote. The prize Mermaid won was $20,000, a record deal with Columbia Records, and a custom avatar item in the game (which became rainbow hair and unicorn horn). After months of contract negotiations with Columbia Records, Merms ultimately decided not to sign the artist deal, preferring to remain independent. Twitch decided to slash the budget for Twitch Sings, removing the app from existence on January 1st 2021.

Alanna excels in using their talents to give back to the community, with a passion for advocacy for mental health, LGBTQ+ and BIPOC folks, and animals. Using Twitch, Alanna has been able to raise thousands of dollars for charity through their community through music performance, giveaways and random nonsense that viewers can trigger by donating. Over the past few years, MermaidUnicorn has supported The Trevor Project and other LGBTQ+ charities, various disaster relief funds, Black Lives Matter organizations, HeartSupport, Dare to Dream Bursary for foster kids post-secondary education, Mermaid’s Gender, and the Ottawa Wild Bird Care Centre.

To support Alanna’s streams, you can follow their channel and tune in live at MermaidUnicorn’s channel. Streams are absolutely free to view and participate in. If you’d like to contribute financially to the development of Alanna’s music career, you can do so by subscribing to the channel for $5USD/month, tipping online through PayPal, or Twitch’s anonymous virtual currency known as bits. 

To connect with the Twitch stream community, lovingly known as the Mermaid Brigade, you can join the discord and participate in voice chat and message threads. Everything from tattoos to mental health chats can be found in the community! You can also opt in to be notified of stream schedules and real-time pings of when Mermaid goes live.