Tragic Details About Sketch
It seems like every year there's a new streamer who's totally dominating the space, and Sketch (a.k.a. TheSketchReal) is exploding in 2024. In almost no time at all Sketch, who's real name is Kylie Cox, has gone from being totally unknown to having millions of passionate fans. He started out streaming "Madden" games on TikTok and Twitch, and people quickly fell in love with his personality and his signature catchphrase: "What's up, brother?" Now he's getting to meet real professional football players, even working with the NFL to make a draft pick announcement. Not everything is sunshine and touchdowns for Sketch, though.
Sketch's rapid rise to internet fame is the type of thing some steamers only ever get to dream about. He's as shocked as anyone else, but Sketch is riding the wave and making the most of his new platform. But just like anyone else, Sketch has his own struggles, but now the tragic details of his life are on display for anyone to see.
Sketch has battled depression and anxiety
Life moves fast on the internet, and even though most people can spend years grinding away before finally getting some recognition, that doesn't hold true for everyone. Sketch only started streaming in June 2023, and he's surprised himself more than anyone with his whirlwind success story. Sketch's rise to streaming fame has changed his life in more ways than he could have imagined.
The last 3 months have been crazy & overwhelming. When I started streaming in June last year I did not expect any of this, I just wanted to have fun. I was in a dark place, depressed & anxious. I prayed to God for something & I had no clue he had a plan waiting for me.
— TheSketchReal (@thesketchreal) March 13, 2024
Despite this excitement, Sketch has opened up about the fact that he struggles with depression and anxiety. He was in a particularly low place when he started streaming, hoping that the experience would bring him a new source of joy. He's been overwhelmed by the response his streams have gotten, but all the success hasn't magically cured Sketch of his hang-ups. Sketch is feeling much better these days, but he's also discovered that being on camera is a source of anxiety unto itself. By this point, Sketch's gesticulations and twitchy movements on camera are part of what his audience loves about him, but he's explained that they're rooted in the stress he feels being on camera.
"The hand movements and motions and stuff like that, that's just me getting energy out," Sketch said in an interview with Bradley Martyn. "I mean, there's cameras on you; I'm not used to them." If Sketch ever gets over being camera shy, he'll still have to keep the same energy up. At this point, it's part of his brand.
Sketch struggles with chat
Streaming is harder than most people realize. Most super-successful streamers work long hours, stay up late into the night, and rarely take any vacations, because disrupting your schedule even for a few days can lose you a ton of subscribers. Sketch has taken the accelerated path along the streaming learning curve, but he's found that the things that bother him most about the job aren't the typical issues you hear about. Sketch's biggest struggle with streaming, hard as it may be to believe, is keeping up with chat.
Sketch has explained that he has terrible eyesight, to the point that he's legally blind when he isn't wearing glasses. Sketch typically wears bargain bin cheaters to help him see the screen when he's streaming, but actually reading the chat still involves squinting hard and leaning into the screen, which can really disrupt gameplay.
When Sketch was starting out, he hardly interacted with chat at all because of his eyesight. Viewers didn't particularly love that, so it took some adjustments before Sketch found a way to balance playing games with entertaining whoever showed up to watch the stream. Now fans understand his limitations, and Sketch has found his own way of making streams more interactive, even if he can't catch every single message that rolls in.
People won't stop asking Sketch if he has a condition
Yes, some of Sketch's now-iconic energy actually comes from his anxiety about being on camera. That seems to be something more people need to know, because people really won't stop asking about it. In Reddit threads, TikTok videos, and various comments sections, viewers have taken to speculating about whether or not Sketch has some kind of condition that causes him to be so energetic on camera, with theories ranging from Tourette yndrome to obsessive compulsive disorder. This is also a subject that he gets asked about in interview after interview.
When Sketch was speaking with Bradley Martyn, he explained, "My good friends and family know I do stuff with my fingers when I get excited." As some fans noted in the comments, this sounds a lot like stimming — not really a tic, but rather a way that people with anxiety, ADHD, or just an overabundance of energy keep themselves focused.
Sometimes people just need a minor distraction to keep themselves on task – like, for example, a video game news writer keeping a fidget toy on their desk to pick up between sentences. Other times, it's a way of managing stress when, say, you have millions of people suddenly tuning in to watch your every move online. Sketch seemingly takes all the speculation in stride, but even for someone as upbeat as him, it's got to be exhausting to constantly field questions about your mystery "condition."
Sketch was born with only one kidney
That's right; Sketch is actually down a whole entire organ. In an interview with Theo Von, Sketch explained that he was actually born with just one kidney, and even though that can lead to intense health problems for some, he treats it as casually as possible. "I was just born without one," Sketch said, adding, "Minus 250,000 when I was born. That's how much a kidney costs, I looked it up the other day." Sketch laughed about the issue before explaining that he's not even sure which kidney he's missing, and he has no idea if his remaining kidney has to work at 150% to compensate or if he's just running at a deficit every single day.
When Von asked about any health complications that Sketch suffers from because of the missing kidney, Sketch just laughed and made light of the situation. He said that he doesn't have any major issues as long as he stays hydrated, but he experiences some pain when going to the bathroom if he doesn't drink enough water. So Sketch's kidney does cause him problems, just (hopefully) not the kind that we're going to see when he's broadcasting.