If you’re not familiar with YouTube inventor, comedian and total genius Simone Giertz, we feel so very sorry for you. The crowned “Queen of Shitty Robots” has dominated the internet with her eccentric inventions. Giertz has built everything you could never think of — from mechanical arms that dodgily apply lipstick, to a robot that is really bad at feeding you soup. Giertz has built-in an empire on pure joy, silliness and ingenuity.
In 2018, at 27 years old, Giertz was diagnosed with a grade 1 meningioma — a rare, non-cancerous brain tumour the size of a golf ball. As a result, she was unable to work for the better half of a year. In a remarkable display of humanity, Giertz’ fans subscribed to her Patreon, to help her make a living during the trying time. Now, she’s giving back to the community that helped her when she needed it the most.
Taking to Patreon, Simone announced that she was pledging her last month of Patreon earnings to anyone that has been forced to take unpaid sick leave amid the current COVID-19 crisis.
“Hi. I hope you and the people you love are doing okay,” she wrote in a post.
“You helped me through one of the most difficult times of my life, and I figure now is the time for me to do the same. I have a very flexible job, and even though I’m feeling some pretty severe economic blows from this, I’ll be fine. I’ve worked this out with my accountant, and have decided to give away last month’s Patreon earnings.
“So if you are forced to take unpaid sick leave or if you’ve recently lost your job: send me a direct message.
“Total code of honour, I will obviously not be able to run background checks on everyone, but I trust you. If you don’t need it now, save it for others. I might not be able to get to everyone, but I’ll try my best.
“I will go through your messages and will try to divide the money as evenly as possible and get it to you as soon as I can.”
In these overwhelming, oft-harrowing times, it’s displays of overwhelming generosity like these that fill us with hope and remind us that although there’s a lot of scary, shittiness in the world — there’s also a lot of goodness.
Watch: Simone Giertz : I made a robot that serves me soup
