Sims started making YouTube videos about The Sims in 2015.[2] Sims' most popular YouTube video, "Building in The Sims but Each Room is a Different Budget" has over 4 million views.[3] As of July 2023, Sims has over 1.9 million subscribers.[4]
Sims is the creator of the Wolf Pack Challenge, which uses The Sims 4: Cats & Dogs expansion pack,[5] and the Not So Berry Challenge, created with her friend Zoë (alwaysimming).[6] In 2019, for her "Simsie Save", in which Sims renovates the game's worlds and characters, Sims made all toilets in her save gender-neutral.[7][8] One of Sims' longest running YouTube series was the "100 Baby Challenge" series, in which she completed the 100 Baby Challenge in The Sims 4 over the course of five years.[9]
In a July 2020 patch to The Sims 4, all cowplants in the game were given the default name "Little Simzee" as a nod to Sims' campaign for the ability to name cowplants in game.[10] Part of this campaign included getting the #justiceforcowplants trending on the Sims gallery via a "shell" building challenge.[11] In August 2020, Sims joined other Sims YouTubers in speaking out against the lack of diversity in skin tones in The Sims 4.[12]
Sims was a judge on YouTube's gaming creator competition show, uTure.[13][14]The show ended August 13, 2022.[15]
Twitch
Sims has a Twitch channel with 823,000 followers, and usually streams six days per week.[16][17] In 2018, Sims was nominated for Streamer of the Year at Summer in the City for her streaming on Twitch.[18] In January 2021, an illustration of her cat was made the PogChamp emote on Twitch for a day.[19]
Sims, as part of the team Sandy's Candies with streamers brandiganBTW, Fuzzireno, and TheHaboo, won the first Stardew Valley Cup in September 2021.[20]
In May 2022, Sims revisited the subject of her most popular video, leaving her Sims 4 game unpaused all night, but this time on her Twitch stream instead of in a YouTube video.[21]
Charity streams
In May 2021, Sims participated for a second time, this time streaming every day for the entire month of May, and raised $369,000 for St. Jude Children's Hospital, bringing her total amount raised for that charity to over $500,000.[22] In June 2021, Sims raised $15,000 for the Transgender Law Center during a charity stream.[16] As a gamer herself, Sims is an avid supporter of AbleGamers, a charity dedicated to making games accessible to disabled children, and has raised money for them on multiple campaigns since 2020. In August of 2021, Sims raised over $100,000 for AbleGamers to help Steven Spohn reach his birthday fundraising goal of $1,000,000.[23]
As of 2023, Sims has raised over $2 million for St. Jude Children’s Hospital through her annual month-long charity Twitch streams.[24] On January 22, 2024, Sims raised money for the Palestine Children's Relief Fund through her Twitch account. She raised $52,000 in one day.[25]
Other work
In October 2020, Sims announced her collaboration with The Sims 4: Snowy Escape expansion pack, creating three lots for the game: 6–4–1 Hanamigawa, 5–6–1 Shinrinyoku, and 2–5–1 Wakabamori.[26][27] In January 2023, Sims announced her collaboration with The Sims 4: Growing Together expansion pack, creating three lots for the game: Celebration Center, Sequoia Cottage, and 13 Acacia Avenue.[28]
Sims also creates content for TikTok. In January 2022, a TikTok she made explaining first-person mode in the Sims 4 and featuring a sim making a grilled cheese was removed for "nudity and sexual activity." The TikTok was subsequently restored and has over 500,000 views.[29]
Education
Sims attended the University of Central Florida. She originally majored in digital media, but switched her major to history in 2018. In May of 2020, Sims graduated college with an undergraduate degree in history.
Personal life
Sims lived in Chicago until her family moved to Florida when she was 4.[30] She began playing The Sims when she was 12[3] and became particularly interested in the game after her father was diagnosed with cancer when she was 14.[31] Sims has attributed the game with helping her cope with her father's diagnosis, using it as an “escape”.[3]
Sims married fellow streamer Dan Grenander on August 25, 2021.[32] Previously, Grenander had moved to the United States to live with her in July 2021 on a K1 Fiancé Visa, after living in the United Kingdom. They applied for a K1 Visa in February 2020.[33] Grenander streams on Twitch under the name “duckdan” and uploads to his associated YouTube channel under the same name. Grenander often plays games such as Dead by Daylight, Fall Guys and Minecraft.[34] They often play games together, such as Mario Kart, Among Us and Fall Guys. They live in Oviedo, Florida. Sims and Grenander have three cats: Snap, Shrimp, and Sunny. Shrimp and Sunny [35] were rescued by Sims and her family.[36]
^Kayla Sims (November 25, 2023). building a christmas tree farm in the sims (YouTube video). lilsimsie. Event occurs at 24:57-. Retrieved November 25, 2023 – via YouTube. I've never had a real Christmas tree. I guess we did when I was like really little and still in Chicago. But since moving to Florida when I was four, we have not had a real one.
