Alanah Pearce paves her own path to success

Within five years, she accomplished both goals.

Pearce, who now creates content for Funhaus and Inside Gaming, wasn’t overconfident. She was driven to succeed in the industry in which she always knew she belonged.

“From the point I could write, I was writing reviews of games,” Pearce said. “I have diaries from when I was 8 years old where I talk about my favorite games and why I liked them. My two passions in life are video games are writing. No matter what, this is where I was going to end up.”

Pearce’s journey began in earnest when a job listing changed the trajectory of her career during her late teens.

“I saw a job listing when I was working for a call center, which is the worst,” Pearce said. “It was for a volunteer games writer. I was like, ‘Oh, I could do this for people and get published.’ It clicked in my head and I decided I was going to dedicate my entire life to doing this.”

Pearce didn’t wait around for those opportunities to come to her. She started reaching out to websites and pitching stories. Pearce started to produce videos to learn the editing process as she developed her skills and contacts within the gaming industry.

“I recognized in order to be in the industry I needed to have more skills because it’s so competitive because everyone wants to be in the industry,” Pearce said. “I invented jobs, basically.”

In the beginning, that meant working for free, but each assignment brought her one step closer to her ultimate goals.

“I’m just aggressively driven and was willing to risk everything to eventually work at IGN,” Pearce said.

Creating your own opportunities is hard work, Pearce said, but is well worth it once you find the sweet spot of your talents and passion.

“It’s more about assessing what you are good at and fitting that into the video games industry,” Pearce said.

Pearce’s hard work has paid off in big ways. Once she arrived at IGN, she thrived, but the jump to Rooster Teeth was an inevitable one once she had learned all she could at IGN.

“When I left IGN, people had a million theories,” Pearce said. “My job was still fun and challenging, but I just didn’t have anything left to do there. I had done everything.”

Now, in addition to her work at Funhaus and Inside Gaming, she is co-host of multiple podcasts, including the Play, Watch, Listen podcast and Xcast for Kinda Funny Games. She also has plans to write a video game in the future.

“All I do is work,” Pearce said. “I’m obsessed with it and it’s not healthy, but burnout is not an issue for me because all I want to do is work.”

That work has extended to multiple mediums. And while the internet hate can be strong at times, Pearce said it won’t ever stop her from saying what’s on her mind.

“Just be genuine and if people get mad about it, you just have to walk away,” Pearce said. “I’ve always been very genuine and said what I feel. That helps me sleep at night.”

Pearce knows it can be hard to break through in an industry that everyone wants to be a part of. But for those who are passionate enough, Pearce said the key is to get started and never give up.

“I had this mindset that I will do it for free until I get paid, and if I can’t, I’ll just keep doing it for free,” Pearce said. “I never would have stopped.”

Contact Lukas Eggen at leggen@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0261. Follow @LukasEggen on Twitter.