Maya Higa was left stunned after discovering that her face has been used as a popular Twitch emote for years without her knowledge.
The revelation came during a February 2026 livestream, when the creator realized an animated laughing emote featuring her face had been circulating widely via 7TV, a Twitch extension that gives users access to more features. Higa said she had always assumed the emote was visible only on her own channel.
“I saw a clip from Julia’s stream and I saw my face in it,” she explained on stream. “I was like, ‘wait, I thought that was just me because it’s my channel.’”
That assumption quickly fell apart once viewers told her the emote was used far beyond her community.
Maya Higa stunned over 4,000 channels use emote of her face
According to 7TV’s listing, the emote is currently enabled in more than 4,000 Twitch channels, a stat that visibly caught Higa off guard.
While Higa was baffled, her chat defended the emote as one of their favorites. Something she firmly disagreed with.
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“It’s not even good,” she remarked. “It’s not even a good emote. I feel like that’s not a good one… is this my claim to fame?”
Despite the surprise, Higa ultimately took it in stride. “Is that not crazy? Why?” she said, before shrugging it off. “If people like it, I’m glad.”
While Maya’s lmao emote still sees use, Twitch left many users stunned earlier this year when several fan-favorite emotes were totally removed, completely out of the blue.
