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This interview was featured in The PMC Weekly Volume 103! In this weekly, we interviewed blisschen!
Blisschen has been a member of Planet Minecraft for about a year and is an exclusive Java Edition player. She's a cozy, cottage core aesthetic enthusiast, and as we learned from this interview, a geniunely dedicated content creator! Her dedication, in fact, has worked well for her as she grew her audience fairly quickly on several social media platforms. We absolutely love her quaint cottages, humble homes, and seasonal builds that have just as much detail on the inside as the outside! Here are a few of our favorite submissions from her:
How did you get started with Minecraft?
I first learned about Minecraft in 2012 from watching the Yogscast, especially their modded Forge series. I originally purchased the game in 2013 and it has always been a very comforting and nostalgic game for me to play. I also originally played a ton of Minecraft Lite (the very old app store version!) on my iPod Touch, and have been searching for the original 1.0.0 release for a while now, since you can’t access App Store purchases on older iPods anymore.
What is it about Java edition that you enjoy so much?
This is a slightly biased take, but since my very first experience with Minecraft was Java Edition (and I spent a bulk playing on modded FTB and Direwolf 1.6!), it remains the sole version near and dear to my heart. When I was introduced to the game, there wasn’t much established “meta” so to speak, and watching creators do playthroughs that told complicated stories or making detailed 3D art created from hours of work—but to do that in the very same game was such a new and exciting concept. Minecraft was revolutionary for its time! I know that Bedrock has done a lot to get Minecraft into the hands of people who never even thought of playing the game before, but I find that the modding scene is way behind where Java Edition is.
What draws you to the cozy & cottagecore aesthetic?
For the unaware, cottagecore is a romanticized interpretation of western European agricultural life, in a mix of pre-urbanization rural American isolation and this idealized pastoral life in countryside Europe, and man, was I enthralled the moment I found it on TikTok and Tumblr! I started posting smaller “cottagecore” house builds on Tumblr every now and then in the second half of 2019, but only started recording and editing my cottage builds together into videos for YouTube and TikTok after “two weeks work from home” turned “indefinite work from home” in early April 2020. It was super helpful as a mental escape while processing some really heavy emotions and situations.
Your profile indicates you are “the mushroom lady” on tiktok. Are mushrooms a part of the cottagecore aesthetic, or do they have a personal meaning to you?
The mushroom lady actually comes from my mushroom hat that I started wearing in my very early YouTube videos, mainly as a way to show off CITs (which are resource packs that allow 3D items to be show in your game without mods). I swapped between a flower-covered straw hat and the now-iconic mushroom hat, but ended up wearing the mushroom hat more and more as I got into the cottagecore aesthetic. But actually, my first piece of fan art had my lady wearing the mushroom hat, and I decided I loved it so much, that the mushroom hat would be part of all my official art from then forward! (And special thanks to my artist, Alzbern, who’d never drawn a mushroom hat before but still decided to jump on board!)
Would you say that your real-life style/aesthetic is close to your Minecraft cottagecore aesthetic, or at least partly inspired by it?
I’m not afraid to ruin my cottagecore aesthetic by throwing on a pair of leggings (with pockets, mind you) and a print t-shirt! When I’m not relaxing, however, I wear a lot of solid neutrals and earthy colors, fun patterned button-ups (I actually have a mushroom button-up from Carmico, a lovely lady from Canada!), and various comfortable jeans. I work in STEM so it’s impossible to go full cottagecore, but using neutral and warm natural colors everywhere makes it still very cozy! I still haven’t figured out how to cottagecore my AirTag yet, but I’ll get there eventually!
You recently hit level 50 on PMC, congratulations! You managed to do that in almost exactly 1 year. What advice do you have for newer members who are looking to level up on Planet Minecraft?
Thank you so much! It’s wonderful going around and demanding my Twitch mods (and dear friends) address me as Grandmaster uwu, never thought I’d see the day. /s I think the best advice is not just posting because you want to see interactions on your work, but posting because you’re truly enthusiastic about sharing what you’re doing (and then watching the interactions go up!). I also really love talking about CIT resource packs because they’re very easy for beginners to start modeling with. I know a lot of very popular packs these days were made by people who have no background in Minecraft modding or 3D modeling.
What is it the most you like about Planet Minecraft?
The little monthly/seasonal pets in the banner art, of course! Ugh, so adorable! I also love browsing the land builds to see what other people have been up to, or looking at trending resource packs to check out what’s popular right now. I especially like finding little packs like Long Bees or Fat Cat because you can tell these creators had a lot of fun creating their packs!
Who inspires you?
It’s very difficult to name just one person, because I look up to so many incredible people and fellow creators, but my dearest partner would be one of the people I most look up to. They originally encouraged me to start posting videos, and still provides me with feedback on videos and other social media posts that go up. Without them, it would be difficult to find the mental space to manage everything, so all my thanks is directed toward my truly amazing partner most of all.
You’re very successful on TikTok, Instagram and YouTube. Which platform did you start out on? Which one is your favorite to create content for? Do you run everything yourself or do you have a team? If you run everything yourself, how do you manage your time?
I have been on YouTube for about five years, and it was my original platform, but I enjoy TikTok the most because of how unique the format is. Content I create on YouTube also has a part to play on TikTok and Instagram, so I always have something to show folks! I create, render, edit, upload, and manage everything myself, and it took a lot of trial and error to find a good balance between my own personal time and social media! I actually had to have a good talk with myself halfway through my first six months. I was working IRL, producing two YouTube videos a week, and posting on TikTok three-four times a week, and that just isn’t healthy for anyone to do alone. It was the first time I actually felt suffocated by social media. I’ve found a good balance now with high-quality content once or twice a week, and take advantage of scheduling posts wherever possible and using different services like IFTTT to automate my smaller details.
Is making Minecraft content a full time job for you?
I work in STEM, and while it’s enjoyable and tech-forward work, I’d love to make Minecraft my full-time job… there just needs to be a few more pieces coming into play before that happens. (*crossing fingers*) On a less serious side, one of my friends jokingly offered to PayPal me to quit TikTok for a month, and I had to say that if he tripled that offer, I still wouldn’t think about it, which is just mind-blowing to me! I’m truly blessed to have such a wonderfully large audience, and don’t enjoy selling things or advertising, so services like Twitch, YouTube, TikTok are my main source of income.
What do you think has contributed to your success and do you have any tips for someone looking to become a successful Minecraft content creator/gain more followers?
I try to be an honest and open content creator, and even my followers are surprised to see that I’m active in my own Discord, on social media, responding to folks, etc. If you truly enjoy what you are doing and share that enthusiasm to the world, that’s the single best way to get noticed. I myself get a bit anxious watching the numbers go up, so I try to avoid looking at my own follower counts or statistics pages, but I especially try not to negatively put myself down seeing more “popular” content creators with millions of followers. It’s just not conductive having that much pressure on your shoulders while creating. Also, it’s my personal opinion that hashtags are useless, focus on highlighting what makes you unique and let the content do the talking!
Tell us about a highlight or two of your Minecraft journey so far.
Building with my viewers and mods back during the October Buildtober challenges I was running! For a short while, I had a Minecraft server set up and the idea was that I could build with folks live—and man it was incredible! We had originally had seventy slots, but the demand to join the server quickly filled up every single slot and nearly crashed the server multiple times with the amount of people trying to join. (It was legitimately a solid wall of join requests, I had two mods just dedicating their evenings toward keeping the server alive!) It was sheer chaotic fun, and I’d love to set up something properly to support more people once the worldwide server shortages settle down. It was a touching moment as a creator to not only see Twitch chat reacting, but also people in-game cheering along. I remember in… I think it was the apothecary build, someone sneakily swam right up behind me and then popped out of the water and made me jump IRL!
What sort of music do you enjoy? Perhaps share your favorite song with us 😊
I actually have a running public list of music I listen to on Spotify here! It’s a categorically wild collection of alternative rock, k-pop, experimental, and simply music that makes me happy. My absolute favorite song though is satellites** by Enter Shikari, which last year Spotify told me I was in the top 2% of listeners for that song… I guess other people might consider that a problem!
What other games do you like to play?
I’m a huge fan of MMORPGs, so Final Fantasy 14 and Black Desert Online have my heart. I also play the Sims (specifically Sims 2) and have a soft spot in my heart for the Nintendogs franchise, which was my first video game ever! I play lots of Beat Saber and Cities Skylines, and plan on picking up Star Wars: Jedi Fallen Order once it goes on sale again!
What are your other hobbies?
It may shock you, but I’m a huge reader! One of my favorite series is the Teixcalaan duology, and I recently finished the second book and proceeded to Have Big Emotions™ after I completed the very last page! I also love mechanical keyboards, and have built three custom boards. My most used board right now is my NK65 Milkshake Edition. I also am a huge writer of both fantasy and nonfiction essays about social media. I really enjoy telling stories from experiences, and hope to one day publish at least one book made out of what I've written!
Describe yourself in 3 words!
Surprisingly introverted, open-hearted! 💛
Blisschen has been a member of Planet Minecraft for about a year and is an exclusive Java Edition player. She's a cozy, cottage core aesthetic enthusiast, and as we learned from this interview, a geniunely dedicated content creator! Her dedication, in fact, has worked well for her as she grew her audience fairly quickly on several social media platforms. We absolutely love her quaint cottages, humble homes, and seasonal builds that have just as much detail on the inside as the outside! Here are a few of our favorite submissions from her:
 Grandpa's Farm from Stardew Valley |  Candy Corn Halloween A-Frame |  Beekeeper's Cottage & Apiary |
How did you get started with Minecraft?
I first learned about Minecraft in 2012 from watching the Yogscast, especially their modded Forge series. I originally purchased the game in 2013 and it has always been a very comforting and nostalgic game for me to play. I also originally played a ton of Minecraft Lite (the very old app store version!) on my iPod Touch, and have been searching for the original 1.0.0 release for a while now, since you can’t access App Store purchases on older iPods anymore.
What is it about Java edition that you enjoy so much?
This is a slightly biased take, but since my very first experience with Minecraft was Java Edition (and I spent a bulk playing on modded FTB and Direwolf 1.6!), it remains the sole version near and dear to my heart. When I was introduced to the game, there wasn’t much established “meta” so to speak, and watching creators do playthroughs that told complicated stories or making detailed 3D art created from hours of work—but to do that in the very same game was such a new and exciting concept. Minecraft was revolutionary for its time! I know that Bedrock has done a lot to get Minecraft into the hands of people who never even thought of playing the game before, but I find that the modding scene is way behind where Java Edition is.
What draws you to the cozy & cottagecore aesthetic?
For the unaware, cottagecore is a romanticized interpretation of western European agricultural life, in a mix of pre-urbanization rural American isolation and this idealized pastoral life in countryside Europe, and man, was I enthralled the moment I found it on TikTok and Tumblr! I started posting smaller “cottagecore” house builds on Tumblr every now and then in the second half of 2019, but only started recording and editing my cottage builds together into videos for YouTube and TikTok after “two weeks work from home” turned “indefinite work from home” in early April 2020. It was super helpful as a mental escape while processing some really heavy emotions and situations.
Your profile indicates you are “the mushroom lady” on tiktok. Are mushrooms a part of the cottagecore aesthetic, or do they have a personal meaning to you?
The mushroom lady actually comes from my mushroom hat that I started wearing in my very early YouTube videos, mainly as a way to show off CITs (which are resource packs that allow 3D items to be show in your game without mods). I swapped between a flower-covered straw hat and the now-iconic mushroom hat, but ended up wearing the mushroom hat more and more as I got into the cottagecore aesthetic. But actually, my first piece of fan art had my lady wearing the mushroom hat, and I decided I loved it so much, that the mushroom hat would be part of all my official art from then forward! (And special thanks to my artist, Alzbern, who’d never drawn a mushroom hat before but still decided to jump on board!)
Would you say that your real-life style/aesthetic is close to your Minecraft cottagecore aesthetic, or at least partly inspired by it?
I’m not afraid to ruin my cottagecore aesthetic by throwing on a pair of leggings (with pockets, mind you) and a print t-shirt! When I’m not relaxing, however, I wear a lot of solid neutrals and earthy colors, fun patterned button-ups (I actually have a mushroom button-up from Carmico, a lovely lady from Canada!), and various comfortable jeans. I work in STEM so it’s impossible to go full cottagecore, but using neutral and warm natural colors everywhere makes it still very cozy! I still haven’t figured out how to cottagecore my AirTag yet, but I’ll get there eventually!
You recently hit level 50 on PMC, congratulations! You managed to do that in almost exactly 1 year. What advice do you have for newer members who are looking to level up on Planet Minecraft?
Thank you so much! It’s wonderful going around and demanding my Twitch mods (and dear friends) address me as Grandmaster uwu, never thought I’d see the day. /s I think the best advice is not just posting because you want to see interactions on your work, but posting because you’re truly enthusiastic about sharing what you’re doing (and then watching the interactions go up!). I also really love talking about CIT resource packs because they’re very easy for beginners to start modeling with. I know a lot of very popular packs these days were made by people who have no background in Minecraft modding or 3D modeling.
What is it the most you like about Planet Minecraft?
The little monthly/seasonal pets in the banner art, of course! Ugh, so adorable! I also love browsing the land builds to see what other people have been up to, or looking at trending resource packs to check out what’s popular right now. I especially like finding little packs like Long Bees or Fat Cat because you can tell these creators had a lot of fun creating their packs!
Who inspires you?
It’s very difficult to name just one person, because I look up to so many incredible people and fellow creators, but my dearest partner would be one of the people I most look up to. They originally encouraged me to start posting videos, and still provides me with feedback on videos and other social media posts that go up. Without them, it would be difficult to find the mental space to manage everything, so all my thanks is directed toward my truly amazing partner most of all.
You’re very successful on TikTok, Instagram and YouTube. Which platform did you start out on? Which one is your favorite to create content for? Do you run everything yourself or do you have a team? If you run everything yourself, how do you manage your time?
I have been on YouTube for about five years, and it was my original platform, but I enjoy TikTok the most because of how unique the format is. Content I create on YouTube also has a part to play on TikTok and Instagram, so I always have something to show folks! I create, render, edit, upload, and manage everything myself, and it took a lot of trial and error to find a good balance between my own personal time and social media! I actually had to have a good talk with myself halfway through my first six months. I was working IRL, producing two YouTube videos a week, and posting on TikTok three-four times a week, and that just isn’t healthy for anyone to do alone. It was the first time I actually felt suffocated by social media. I’ve found a good balance now with high-quality content once or twice a week, and take advantage of scheduling posts wherever possible and using different services like IFTTT to automate my smaller details.
Is making Minecraft content a full time job for you?
I work in STEM, and while it’s enjoyable and tech-forward work, I’d love to make Minecraft my full-time job… there just needs to be a few more pieces coming into play before that happens. (*crossing fingers*) On a less serious side, one of my friends jokingly offered to PayPal me to quit TikTok for a month, and I had to say that if he tripled that offer, I still wouldn’t think about it, which is just mind-blowing to me! I’m truly blessed to have such a wonderfully large audience, and don’t enjoy selling things or advertising, so services like Twitch, YouTube, TikTok are my main source of income.
What do you think has contributed to your success and do you have any tips for someone looking to become a successful Minecraft content creator/gain more followers?
I try to be an honest and open content creator, and even my followers are surprised to see that I’m active in my own Discord, on social media, responding to folks, etc. If you truly enjoy what you are doing and share that enthusiasm to the world, that’s the single best way to get noticed. I myself get a bit anxious watching the numbers go up, so I try to avoid looking at my own follower counts or statistics pages, but I especially try not to negatively put myself down seeing more “popular” content creators with millions of followers. It’s just not conductive having that much pressure on your shoulders while creating. Also, it’s my personal opinion that hashtags are useless, focus on highlighting what makes you unique and let the content do the talking!
Tell us about a highlight or two of your Minecraft journey so far.
Building with my viewers and mods back during the October Buildtober challenges I was running! For a short while, I had a Minecraft server set up and the idea was that I could build with folks live—and man it was incredible! We had originally had seventy slots, but the demand to join the server quickly filled up every single slot and nearly crashed the server multiple times with the amount of people trying to join. (It was legitimately a solid wall of join requests, I had two mods just dedicating their evenings toward keeping the server alive!) It was sheer chaotic fun, and I’d love to set up something properly to support more people once the worldwide server shortages settle down. It was a touching moment as a creator to not only see Twitch chat reacting, but also people in-game cheering along. I remember in… I think it was the apothecary build, someone sneakily swam right up behind me and then popped out of the water and made me jump IRL!
What sort of music do you enjoy? Perhaps share your favorite song with us 😊
I actually have a running public list of music I listen to on Spotify here! It’s a categorically wild collection of alternative rock, k-pop, experimental, and simply music that makes me happy. My absolute favorite song though is satellites** by Enter Shikari, which last year Spotify told me I was in the top 2% of listeners for that song… I guess other people might consider that a problem!
What other games do you like to play?
I’m a huge fan of MMORPGs, so Final Fantasy 14 and Black Desert Online have my heart. I also play the Sims (specifically Sims 2) and have a soft spot in my heart for the Nintendogs franchise, which was my first video game ever! I play lots of Beat Saber and Cities Skylines, and plan on picking up Star Wars: Jedi Fallen Order once it goes on sale again!
What are your other hobbies?
It may shock you, but I’m a huge reader! One of my favorite series is the Teixcalaan duology, and I recently finished the second book and proceeded to Have Big Emotions™ after I completed the very last page! I also love mechanical keyboards, and have built three custom boards. My most used board right now is my NK65 Milkshake Edition. I also am a huge writer of both fantasy and nonfiction essays about social media. I really enjoy telling stories from experiences, and hope to one day publish at least one book made out of what I've written!
Describe yourself in 3 words!
Surprisingly introverted, open-hearted! 💛
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