Introduction - What is it like being a Cosplayer?

I'm YuppyGuppy and I don't actually have a cosplay fanpage on Facebook like some of my cosplay friends because I'm still very inexperienced and the quality of my cosplays aren't quite ready for that step yet! I've been cosplaying since I was in seventh grade (which would be 2007) but I didn't go to my first convention until I went with a friend to Megacon 2011. For some cosplayers, cosplay is all about the process of creation, the challenge of making a costume that was never meant to exist in real life, but for me cosplay is all about that final moment when after months (or days) of hard work, you first don the complete costume and transform into a character you love and admire. I absolutely love wearing my costumes because of the sense of pride I feel for my hard work and because I get an amazing feeling from pretending that I really am that character. I love role playing and games like DnD so cosplay to me is an exciting way to truly embody a character I love.

What are your next goals?

My biggest goal is to get better at sewing! I think I've gotten a fairly good grasp on props and armor, but cloth costumes are daunting to me. This coming school year I'll be living with three other cosplayers who are all great at sewing so hopefully I pick up a thing or two from them!

Cosplay Characters

Terra from Teen Titans, Jill Valentine from Resident Evil 5, Tank Girl from Tank Girl, Candy Ice from Arctic Thunder, Sylvia Christel from No More Heroes 2, Rin Matsuoka from Free!, Rin Okumura from Ao No Exorcist, Gwen Stacy from Spider-man, Enema of the State Nurse from the Blink-182 album cover, and Classic Lux, Regifted Amumu, TPA Orianna, and Classic and Red Card Katarina from League of Legends.

What does Cosplay mean to you?

To me cosplay is a way to keep the characters and media that I love alive. For example, once I finished the anime Ao No Exorcist I was left feeling unsatisfied and really sad that there was no more that I could watch, because I had become so attached to the characters. I absolutely loved and missed the main character, Rin Okumura, and so to bring him to life I decided to cosplay him! Working on the cosplay kept the anime alive for me, as if it wasn't really over, and when I finally finished it, wearing the costume and being Rin was the most fun I've ever had cosplaying. I love Rin's energetic and fiery personality and I got a rush from embodying him and meeting other people at the convention who were equally as passionate about the character as I was.

Who have been your biggest influences/role models/mentors?

I began cosplaying before I even knew what cosplay was or that there was such a thing as conventions where everyone met up in their costumes, but the giant community has really helped to encourage my interest in cosplay and improve my skills as a cosplayer. The first "famous" cosplayer I ever followed was Jessica Nigri, and because she was the first I ever knew of she still holds a special place in my heart now (and her cosplays and craftsmanship are incredible despite what anyone says), but my bigger role models now would be Vampybitme and Mohrigan Cosplay. However, my biggest influence and role model is my best friend Amanda Panda Cosplay, who I've been cosplaying with since the beginning and have been amazed at how far she's come. At first we both were terrible at cosplay, but she learned so fast because she was so passionate and so driven and she quickly passed me in skill and I can't believe the amount of work and creativity she puts into her cosplays now. She's such an inspiration to me and I love her.

Do you have any advice or suggestions for upcoming Cosplayers?

Try handmaking as many pieces of your costume as you can! When I first started I'd sometimes buy all the pieces to my costumes, which there's nothing wrong with, but I found that making the costume you wear is so incredibly rewarding and quadruples the fun of wearing it. There's no better feeling than the sense of pride you feel when someone compliments a costume that you put all your blood, sweat and tears into. And get creative with how you make things! If you don't know how to sew you'd be surprised how much you can do with hot glue haha. As you're learning, take shortcuts, but then in subsequent cosplays try to eliminate those shortcuts and learn how to make things the best way that you can. The internet is a super useful and invaluable resource in cosplay so use it! See what others have done before you, where they've failed and succeeded, then come up with your own way to make your costume! And always keep the character in mind throughout the costume creation process, if you lose sight of the reason you wanted to make the costume in the first place it will become tiresome and frustrating instead of fun and challenging. Keep reminding yourself of why you love the character by watching the anime/playing the game/etc.

What is the most negative experience you've dealt with while cosplaying, and how did you handle it?

Surprisingly, as long as I've cosplayed, I've had very few negative experiences. The majority of my experience has been overwhelming positive (besides the last minute, night-before-the-con costume making sessions which are usually filled with tears and frustration), however one event sticks out in my mind. I was at a small convention in Pensacola called Anime South and I was staying at a hotel a few blocks down from the convention. I was super excited to debut my new Regifted Amumu cosplay, but, because of the cones I had around my legs and feet and the giant box I had over my head it was pretty hard to maneuver, as both walking and seeing was difficult. When I started my walk to the convention I had to go slow, and I already started to feel a sense of frustration overtaking my feelings of excitement, but what made it a million times worse was that it started to POUR extremely hard. A large portion of my costume was made out of cardboard, which does not go well with rain, so I was completely devastated. My box head started to sag and my leg cones fell apart, while the bottom of my costume became soaked in mud and many of the bandages I had wrapped around my body fell off. Being the big baby I am I cried the whole way there. By the time I made it to the con my costume was in terrible condition, but I had already signed up to be prejudged for the costume competition and so I went anyways, embarrassed of how terrible my costume looked and expecting the worst, but the judges were incredibly kind and made me feel at ease as soon as I entered the room. They seemed to love my costume and the questions they asked me about construction seemed genuinely interested rather than critical. I walked out feeling much happier and decided that my costume, in its damaged state, now fit the character even better; he was "regifted" after all. I ended up winning a judges award for my costume and it was absolutely the proudest moment of my time cosplaying. I get so happy every time I think about it. The absolute worst experience I've ever had cosplaying ended up being followed by the absolute best experience which made that soul crushing trek through the mud and the rain worth it.

Any final remarks or shout-outs?

Shout out to Amanda Panda Cosplay, Liz Herold, and Logan Iglesias! You guys are my best friends and cosplaying wouldn't be fun without you!