Jess (Aphmau)

Jessica Bravura

Jessica Bravura, better known as her online alias, Aphmau, is a female YouTuber with 18 million subscribers, best known for popularizing the genre of Minecraft roleplay. There is a distinct split in content, between her cinematic roleplay series and episodic roleplay videos more decisively catered towards a younger audience.

Appearance

Jessica has black hair, and brown eyes. She Is sometimes seen wearing glasses. Shes 1 meter and 51 centimeters tall

History

As said and mentioned in her Draw My Life, Jess was born in Houston, Texas on October 16, 1989, with both parents and older half-brother she always just referred to as her brother. Her parents divorced a couple of years after her birth because of a lot of differences. Afterwards, she, her brother, and her mom went to live with her grandparents, aunt, and multiple cousins. Her brother and eventually all her cousins had gaming consoles except for her yet she was shown to be very keen to games. Her parents shared custody of her so every other week she went to go live with her father which she said was "Nice because I got to get away from a hectic house every now and then." Eventually, her mother moved back in with her father for a period of time. It was at this time when she got her first gaming console, which was a Nintendo 64, Jess remembered going to Best Buy with her parents who blindfolded her for an unknown reason only to be led to a shelf full of Nintendo sixty-fours, at which they took off the blindfold, and she was so excited from that moment that she cried. Jess remembered the day so vividly after they got home with her new console, her parents had a very funny argument when they couldn't figure out how to do the wires. Jess added that her mom had done a dance when she managed to do it by accident. During elementary school, Jess made many friends through her interest in video games. Yet she was also considered to be "too nice" at times, with examples being of her giving her lunch money to those who didn't have or forgot their money. People took advantage of that and started bullying her which also caused her to become introverted throughout elementary. During the terrifying terrorist attack on September 11, Jessica's father was getting worried about her safety, so he pulled her out of school in order to be home-schooled for a year during her time at middle school. During the year she returned to middle school, she decided to wear cat ears. She also developed an awkward relationship with a guy. He broke up with her in front of the classroom when things got uncomfortable.

During her transition from middle to high school, Jess got into online really epic gaming with her first online game. It was called FreQuency, and it was on the PlayStation 2. As mentioned in her Draw My Life, the game that turned her life around was Final Fantasy XI. In 2005, she met an in-game warrior named Dom, who she later found out, his real name was Jason. They didn't seem to notice that they were falling in love, then over time, they both became boyfriend and girlfriend. Jessica would often take trips from Texas to New Jersey to see Jason.

File:Wedding Photo.png

Jason and Jess's Wedding Photo

In 2012 Jess found out she was pregnant the same year Jason planned to propose to her. They got married earlier than planned at Disney World. She felt a little grumpy about taking photos and just wanted to eat. They moved from their apartment into a larger house they had saved up for. While waiting for the baby, Jason and Jess found themselves watching lots of YouTube channels and being amazed at the idea of making a career off of what you loved. As Jess had already planned to be a stay-at-home mom, she and Jason talked about starting a YouTube channel with her being the personality and Jason taking the technical side. In July of 2012, Jess gave birth to her first child, which was a boy, named Joseph via C-section. Jessica had to have C-section due to her babies being quite big, most probably from Jason's height.

After getting adjusted to being parents, Jess and Jason started a YouTube channel with her high-school friends Calvin (Castor) and Chris (Satiel). But due to their own personal reasons, each had to leave the channel. They all still play games together at times.

After running a small channel for a while, CAinc even ran an Iron & Coal server to exist alongside one of their series. By the time they were continuing the server, Jess found out that she was having another baby! This server soon closed due to her being pregnant and financial reasons.

During January 2014, Jess gave birth to a baby girl named Julia. Julia was also born via C-Section.

In September 2018, Jessica announced that she was pregnant. Later in a video on her main channel, she announced that the baby is a girl! The baby was born on May 12, 2019, with the name Jennifer Bravura. Jessica later announced that she was having another baby girl, Jessabelle, whom was born on October 21st, 2020.

Jessica's Current Life

Jess and her family currently live in Bellevue, Washington. She moved there in early 2019. Jess and Jason also run their own studio called Cat Face. The Aphmau brand has partnered with Night Studios to bring Aphmau skins to the Minecraft Marketplace.

Jess adopted a corgi puppy named Jet and a cat named Jax, continuing the J-trend in her family's names (Jess, Jason, Joseph, Julia, etc). She currently has four children, Joseph already turned 11 in July, Julia turned nine in January, Jennifer turned five in May, and Jessabelle is about two and a half and will be turning three on October 21st.

Relationships

Jason

Known online as Dom, Aaron or Jason, is Jessica's husband to whom she has been married for 11 years. They met in 2000 over Final Fantasy XI. The two flew to each other and soon realized their feelings. They got married in March of 2012 at a Disney World resort in Florida, and have since then had four children: Joseph, Julia, Jennifer, and Jessabelle.

Joseph

Joseph is the oldest of Jess and Jason's four children and the older brother of Julia, Jennifer, and Jessabelle. He was born on July 12, 2012 (just 1 day short of Friday the 13th), about a month before Jess and Jason started their channel with Satiel and Castor. He has done one voice recording on My Street as the role of toddler Jason, which needed subtitles at first. He and Julia made a Minecraft world to show their mom (Jess). You can find the video here. Joseph is the oldest out of all of Jess's and Jason's kids. He is now 11 years old, just having turned 11 on July 12, 2023.

Julia

Julia is the second of Jess and Jason's four children. She was born on January 21, 2014, about a year and a half after Joseph was born and the channel was created. Julia is the voice actor of toddler Alina, Lilith, and Aphmau, meaning Julia has done more video recordings than her older brother Joseph. She and Joseph made a Minecraft world to show their mom (Jess). You can find the video here. Julia has also made another video with her mom about pranking. The video can be found here. Julia is the oldest to Jennifer and Jessabelle but a youngest to Joseph. (Since he's the oldest) Julia just turned 9, in January.

Jennifer

Jennifer is the third child of Jess and Jason's four children. She was born on May 12, 2019, about 5 years after Julia and 7 after Joseph. Jennifer turned 5 in May.

Jessabelle

Jessabelle is Jason and Jess's fourth child—not much is known about her as she is very young. She was born on October 21st, 2020, about a year after Jennifer. Jessablle turned 3 in October.

Jet the Corgi

Jess's adorable corgi puppy. He was adopted by Jess during March 2017. He loves lamb chops. He's on Instagram now and still needs help to talk to the ladies at the office. He is honestly the star, and he loves to be loved all the time.

File:CORGI! YAS!.jpg

Jax the Cat

Jax was one of the newest additions to the family, welcomed on March 24, 2018! Jax was the most purr~fect cat ever! Jax always steals Jet's Instagram. He didn't get along with the kids, so he was given to Jess’s new landlord.

Johnny the Cat

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Johnny the cat

Johnny was the Bravura’s tuxedo cat until he was lost in December of 2015. It’s unknown where he went just that he disappeared. A little fun fact is that his name was Johnny Depp when adopted! Jess absolutely loved him, her kids did too! In dedication to him, Jess dropped a “Johnny cat” plush.

Trivia

• Everyone in the Jess's household have names starting with J! Jessica, Jason, their four kids Joseph, Julia, Jennifer, and Jessabelle, their corgi Jet, their kitten Jax, and their tuxedo cat Johnny. And even Juniper!
  • Johnny is no longer with them since he got lost around Christmas time in 2015, and Jax was given away to their landlord due to Jax not getting along with the kids.
• Aphmau becomes whimsical when someone mentions dogs (specifically, corgis) and cats.
• Aphmau is only 4'10" in height
• As of March 20, 2020, Aphmau's channel has reached 5,000,000 subscribers! Congrats!
  • 4.5 months later, she reached 6,000,000!
  • As of, 2021, Aphmau's Channel reached 10,000,000 subscribers! YAY!
  • In August 2022, she reached 14,000,000!
  • Not too long after, in December 2022, she reached 15,000,000 subscribers!
  • As of April 2023, Aphmau has reached over 16,000,000 subscribers!
  • At the end of May 2023, she reached 17,000,000 subs!
  • The channel has reached 18,000,000 subscribers in the beginning of September 2023.
• She has revealed in a Q&A that the series Minecraft Diaries will end, but no time soon.
  • Minecraft Diaries season 3 has been cancelled. <ref>Jason Bravura: I made the decision to shelve it.</ref>
• As part of the 2023 Vidcon Q&A panel<ref>Aphmau & Friends Take the Stage for Their First-Ever Panel at #VidConAN23</ref> hosted by Aphmau, Jess confirmed that she still wants to finish MyStreet and Diaries Rebirth, and wants to conclude Minecraft Diaries in another medium such as a book. This was approximately the same answer Jess delivered during the "Diaries Season 1 Remake!" Livestream on June 24th, 2019.
  During the 2023 Q&A panel at VidCon 2023, Jess gave the following statement;
  Audience: "Are you ever going to finish the remakes of Diaries and MyStreet?"
  Jess: "That's a really good one. I absolutely want to. So, MyStreet - I don't know how you follow that up, and I've been working for years trying to figure that out. There's plans! There's plans. And MyStreet will have a final season - at some point! At some point. But I can't promise any time soon, so just keep an eye out, eventually you'll get one conclusion season. Some point coming up. So, for Diaries, I'd like to do something a little different, and... thinking about ways to do it! So I don't wanna spoil anything just yet - but just wanna figure out if that's possible, so, we'll go for it."
  Audience: [unintelligible question]
  Jess: "Book... Maaaybe..? We'll see! No promises, but!"

• Her two favorite female characters in MCD are Katelyn and Lucinda.
• Jess really wants to join in on the Minecraft Diaries fandom, but due to her being the creator, she can't risk giving out secrets (She jokingly ships Zanemau into the fandom).<ref>https://twitter.com/_Aphmau_/status/702701736834654209</ref><ref>https://twitter.com/_Aphmau_/status/700962230213283840</ref><ref>https://twitter.com/_Aphmau_/status/700963977661018112</ref><ref>https://twitter.com/_Aphmau_/status/695831725654429697</ref><ref>https://twitter.com/_Aphmau_/status/692560212226633728</ref> Jess has revealed on her twitter that she ships Aarmau.<ref>https://twitter.com/_Aphmau_/status/746849847387394048</ref>
• Her alias, Aphmau, comes from the character Aphmau from Final Fantasy XI<ref>https://youtu.be/m-jB9r693FU?t=519</ref>
• Jess's channel, as of October 30th, 2020, has over 4.5 billion views!
• Jess has ended the series known as Dreams of Estorra due to the fact that it takes so long to make an episode, and most of the feedback was not positive.
• Jess has started Meteora Valley as her contribution to the Stardew Valley game.
• Jess is currently the 6th most subscribed female gamer on YouTube.
• One of Jessica's most popular videos is "Faster Car", with a whopping 43 million views!
• As stated in an Instagram post, she suffered severe depression as a child and suffers from post-Partum depression when she became a mother. <ref>https://www.instagram.com/p/BUJGhiGBQpI/</ref>
  • She was hospitalized twice due to breaking down and even had Jason defend her on Twitter when she was bombarded with threats by thousands of outraged and livid fans whenever she posts videos that give fans strong negative emotions.
  • Fortunately, some people understand her issue and give her compliments that cheer her up, telling her how great the feels made the show amazing and wonderful and how the voice actors did a good job expressing their emotions.
• She has something called a "trigger" word that makes her laugh: "caca-poo-poo."
• She claims to have tropophobia. Seeing something covered in holes causes her to itch. This also includes things that appear to be covered in holes.
• She does know how to swim, and has been told to her several times.
• She will take a break from social media if she is stressed enough.
• She has recently gotten into watching speed paints. She finds them soothing while writing scripts.
• She used to work at GameStop. While at Taco Bell, she was only allowed to drink Mountain Dew. This eventually gave her a bad taste for the beverage.
• She almost fainted at a fan meet up.
• She was camera shy when it came to facecam, but she eventually seemed to get over it.
• When at conventions, she avoids giving out too much info on her location to avoid mobs.
• She is obsessed with informing her audience to look both ways before crossing the street.
• Before the help of her now co-workers in BlueJay Studios(now rebranded to CatFace as of 2019), Jessica and Jason made videos in their basement.
• If she wasn’t a YouTuber, she would’ve taken part in either child education or being a nurse.
  • She did in fact take part in a program in high school that gave her experience in the latter.
• She seems to base Aphmau's attire on her own wardrobe.
• She jokingly treats Ross and Max like her sons.
• She seems to have a love/hate relationship with bees.
• On her phone, she had an Aaron sticker.
• She loves England, asking her friend Andy about the country whenever she has the chance. She'd like to visit one day and hopefully meet the queen and her corgis.
• She was involved in YT Creators Summit 2018 in New York City.
• Jess sometimes tends to overreact whenever she discovers something in a video game.
• She absolutely adores pets and babies.
• She gets queasy whenever she sees blood that isn't her own.
• She has an obsession with Beyonce.
• When pregnant, she doesn't do food limitations.
• She had no idea what French kissing was until October 2018.
• Jess has contacts. She can't wear them for more than two hours or else her eyes will start to water.
• Jason usually helps resolve technical issues when she's live.
• Her wedding cake was red velvet with cream cheese.
• She was involved in a YouTube Creator Panel at PAX East 2019.
  • She came home sick after the convention.
• Jess considers herself a furry, but she doesn't do fur suits. She prefers looking at what other people create.
• She revealed that she will be a playable character in the indie game "Mowin' & Throwin"'.
• Jess was resentful when she realized she sponsored the dating sim app "Mystic Messenger" without asking to get paid.
• She was given a free coupon from Olive Garden for sponsoring them.
• Because the song "We'll Be Forgetting This" no longer belongs to Epidemic, also the song is NOT in Apple Music Jess can't play it in her videos anymore or else she'll get copyrighted.
• Her favorite Disney Princess is Jasmine.
• Jess appeared in the 15th episode of the Wonder Quest as Akila.
• Jess plays ROBLOX on a then new channel called Aphmau Shuki. She plays various games with voice actors from her other series. At one point, the channel went on hiatus for over a year before returning with weekly videos.
• She was in a video on Minecraft's YouTube channel that celebrated one trillion views on the platform. However, the video has been taken down.
• When she hops onto a Minecraft SMP during one of her friends' Twitch streams, she doesn't stream her perspective or join VC. She is also more chaotic than how she is usually portrayed.
• She sometimes makes appearances on the YouTube channel Jkrew as either herself or a custom NPC.
• Jess used to stream on Twitch, in which she was able to swear, but she later switched to streaming on YouTube on Mondays. She stopped a few months before the switch in content creation. Afterwards, all of her Monday streams have either been hidden or removed. Currently, only twelve past live streams are available to watch on her channel.
• She used to have a Patreon, in which people could watch exclusive videos and streams as well as receive gift boxes. However, only one gift box was ever distributed to the patrons, which contained character stands as well as an exclusive water bottle and t-shirt.

References

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