Rising Stars: Meet Sara Roberts of Metro Detroit

Today we’d like to introduce you to Sara Roberts

Hi Sara, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
In all honesty, TheHypeGoblin was born out of my boredom during the 2020 lockdown. At the time I was playing a lot of Dungeons & Dragons online with friends and to fill the spaces between games I began building character costumes and posting them online. It started as just a wig and makeup and slowly grew from there.

I had also recently joined a new app called TikTok and the big trend for cosplayers was to lip sync to popular audio clips that matched the vibe of your character. I began doing this with my D&D characters to entertain myself and my friends, using popular audio to reference what the character was experiencing in our weekly games. It turns out that more people than just my friends found the content engaging, and my account began to grow with my Instagram account soon following the trend.

Fast forward to today, I’m now posting a wider array of entertainment content online including a story-driven D&D podcast called Luck & Chaos, reviewing musicals for Broadway In Detroit, crafting content on Patreon and YouTube, and speaking on panels at conventions! It’s been an unexpected but delightful journey.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
No one prepares you to go from a nerd going about their daily life to an internet personality people recognize at conventions. Feeling as though I belong in the spaces I’m now invited into, places where I’m asked to speak with authority on a subject, has been a big shift for me to process. I’m thankful to my small circle of industry friends, who have been in this field longer than I have, for taking me under their wing and helping me feel as though I do belong here. No one hands you a guidebook on how to make that shift from being the average person to being A Brand and it’s been quite the learning curve.

I was also completely unprepared mentally to deal with the opinions of strangers on the internet. I’m a married, queer, femme-presenting person on the internet. Some people hate me for simply existing as my authentic self. Strange men comment downright disgusting things to me. People pick at my hair, my skin, my body, or the fact that I wear the same outfit in multiple videos… It took years to run my brand and separate my sense of self from the opinions of strangers. Some days it’s still hard.

I think that’s why my most recent costume creation was one that allowed me to hide my face but still express my personality. I was inspired to create a pumpkin head costume after seeing the pre-order for a gaming company’s latest figure. I think it’s the most fun I’ve ever had creating and I was tickled the company lent me the product that inspired the build to take photos with it. There was no money exchanged, no promise of services, just a nerd sharing their joy with the world and having it reflected back in kind.

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I guess Artist/Creative fits me best but at this point, I wear so many hats I’m not entirely sure.

Most know me for my short-form content on TikTok and Instagram Reels, just silly little videos of me dressed in one of the elaborate costumes of my original characters. However, what I’m most proud of is my work as a podcast editor and producer.

The podcast started out of my frustration with people saying third-party D&D content “isn’t balanced, it should be banned at tables because of x,y,z…” So, I had the idea to center a podcast around third-party published content. My players are using classes from a wide array of supplements, I’m using NPC, monsters, and world-building supplements from a large library of third-party sources. I’m incredibly proud of the storytellers I sit with every week, of the editing skills I’ve learned to produce the show, and of the community we’ve built through Patreon.

The show has even inspired me to create new costumes centered around the characters the audience and my fellow storytellers have enjoyed. Maybe it’s the ADHD, but the more I branch out into new creative avenues the more I find everything ties into my love of stories and creating something new from an abstract idea.

How do you think about happiness?
I love making things that spark the imagination. Whether it’s a new costume or stories with friends that impact not only our hearts but those who listen along to our journey, there’s something incredibly special about being able to maintain your imagination and whimsy as an adult. I hope I always find ways to create that joy for myself and others.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.hypegoblin.com/luckandchaos
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thehypegoblin_/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheHypeGoblin/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIBUEAhG8EXvaXUzaVlF_cA