How to be internet famous and anonymous at the same time

She selects tunes from videogame franchises such as Zelda and Pokémon and sometimes sings along. Fans react with song requests, virtual applause and comments. In nine months, Pumpkin has attracted more than 15,000 followers.

The person behind Pumpkin, Rachel Gravelle, is a virtual streamer, also known as a VTuber. Derived from “virtual YouTuber," such people use avatars or images to portray themselves online while keeping their offline identities mostly hidden.

Some adopt avatars that resemble themselves. Others appear as digital animals, anime characters or vintage cartoons. “Realistically, we are puppeteers," says Ms. Gravelle, who hasn’t made her identity known to her audience until now.

The growing interest in posing as an avatar raises the question: Why be famous and anonymous at the same time? Some didn’t find an audience streaming as themselves, or found being on-camera tiring. Some have disabilities or chronic illnesses that prevent them from always looking or feeling camera-ready.

Some choose to stay incognito to avoid the harassment or negativity that many popular creators face.

People who have thrived online are finding their once-pleasant social networks increasingly toxic. One solution has been migrating—from Facebook to LinkedIn, for instance. Another is putting on a virtual mask: VTubers say they can have a big online presence without the unpleasant side effects.

“When interacting with the audience, my words and actions are genuinely Rachel," says Ms. Gravelle. “It’s me, but with an old-timey coat of paint."

The former community manager for a videogame company says streaming is now her full-time career. She makes money from her Twitch platform, merchandise sales, sponsorships and YouTube clips. Ms. Gravelle has commissioned a 3-D environment for Pumpkin, where she can move her legs, get up from her chair and more using body-tracking technology.

Popular in Asia for some years, VTubing has only recently gained traction in the U.S. One of the biggest VTubers in the West, Ironmouse, has 1.3 million followers. Through a talent representative, she declined to be interviewed. She didn’t want to provide her real name.

Viewership for the VTubing category on Twitch, which includes live and on-demand streams, has more than quadrupled from January to August of this year compared with the same time frame last year, Twitch says. Early this month, the platform hosted a VTuber-only tournament for the popular fighting game “Fall Guys," attended by 24 different characters and watched by around 100,000 fans.

A Barrier Between Streamer and Audience

Tiffany Witcher, is a voice actress and streamer who has lupus, an autoimmune disease that can cause rashes. She started streaming in 2018, playing videogames on camera. Ms. Witcher—who is Black—switched to VTubing in 2020 because it meant she no longer had to apply makeup whenever a rash would appear.

She chose as her character a witch—a nod to her real name—clad in purple clothing with butterfly ornaments, symbols of lupus awareness. Accompanying her avatar is Sir Cognelious, a butterfly-winged Corgi who moves around the screen using “sparkle farts." (Ms. Witcher doesn’t have a dog in real life.)

When she streamed on camera, she didn’t get much attention. As a cartoon witch, she now has more than 10,000 followers.

VTubing can provide income for people with disabilities, Ms. Witcher says, since it doesn’t require people to physically look or act a certain way. Streaming has become her main source of income, she says, leading to accessibility consulting, speaking gigs and other opportunities.

Still, even as an avatar, her streams have been the target of “hate raids," when a flood of anonymous viewers joins a stream and posts hostile messages. (Regular “raids," in which Twitch streamers ask their followers to join another stream, can be a good thing.)

Ms. Witcher says the hate raids started soon after she began streaming in 2018. “It was shocking, but I really wasn’t scared because I heard of it before," she adds. The most recent hate raid occurred this month, during the Twitch “Fall Guys" tournament.

She believes some of the harassment stems from racism. The avatar helps her shake off the comments, since viewers can’t read her real facial expressions.

“There’s always going to be someone in the shadows that wants to see you fall," Ms. Witcher says.

Twitch says it has taken legal action and developed policies, resources and tools for creators to combat hate raids, including a feature released in July that allows streamers to warn others of malicious users they’ve banned.

Protecting Their Health

Some streamers say avatars help them preserve mental well-being.

Elizabeth Sweet created digital content for over a decade, amassing more than 97,000 followers on her YouTube account, Miss Shadow Lovely. The videos included her role-playing as different characters and sharing updates about her life. While she was mostly off camera, she did show her face here and there.

She started VTubing in 2020. She developed an interactive red-haired anime character accompanied by a black cat that occasionally wakes up from its nap and greets viewers.

Ms. Sweet has been in therapy for the past three years for body dysmorphia, a disorder that causes people to obsess on small or imagined physical flaws. She says the avatar helps her think less about her appearance.

“Being able to put a projection or an image of myself that is not the real physical me, and have people not judge me on my physical attributes, is a huge deal—like a huge weight off my shoulders," she says.