We have the pleasure of welcoming racing driver and LGBQTI advocate Charlie Martin to this episode of Nitro Nights.
Charlie Martin gained attention with her YouTube Channel where she documented the whole process of her transition from man to woman. The change also affected her racing career as she felt a big weight being taken off her shoulders. She proudly engages in raising LGBQTI awareness by using her visibility in motorsports since she became Stonewall Sports Champion.
A tough path but worth every step
Now Charlie has entered the esports scene for the first time actively as semi-professional contestant. As she had been on air on TV channels like BBC and Sky Sports News before, Charlie was not exactly new to the business when she covered the Forza Racing Championship 2019 as a caster. Since then she has had a sim rig at home dipping her toes into the world of esports racing from time to time. The competition was her first professional esports experience though.
“I want my videos to be high quality.”
As she now claims on kickstarting as a live streamer as well, the 39-year-old racer talks about the difficulties that she needs to overcome to start streaming. Those reach from installing a proper streaming setup to getting enough practice ingame for being able to deliver a proper performance onstream. She also explains the differences and difficulties using a normal and a virtual reality setup for sim racing.
“When you belong to that [family], it’s phenomenal.”
Of course, Charlie also talks with Tom about diversity in motorsports. She tries to be a role model and encourage more people to share their stories, as motorsport is still very traditional. A lot of non-binary people don’t really think of themselves as being able to make it in this world. Charlie makes clear that mostly their own mindset is the limit and tries to be as visible as possible to show that you can make it despite not being a man.
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