Why Do I Cosplay? And Why You Should, Too!

    Why do I cosplay? It is probably the most frequent question I get. I feel as though in today's world people expect the answer to be "for the money." Especially those that are not coplayers themselves or just got into it recently. But, the truth of the matter is if money was the end goal, us cosplayers would be doing LITERALLY any other job instead. This particular field is expensive as hell and only a small handful of cosplayers make a profit doing this! Yes, for me personally I am SO fortunate enough that it pays my bills and feeds me and I can focus all of my time into the craft.  But man, if it was about the money anyone is better off doing any other job out there! The work is longer than you'd expect, tedious, frustrating, the amount of brainstorming and working through being totally stumped is stressful (especially when having to make something new and have no prior experience with it!), often comes with injury (burns galore!)...and after all the printing, shipping, materials, travel cost, etc there is not as big as a profit as you'd think.  It is not all fun either, some of these costumes are painful to wear, wigs, heavy armor that restricts your movement, etc. Not to mention, most of the profit goes RIGHT back into cosplay! If you are looking into it ONLY as some sort of job, I cannot stress how much you REALLY need to LOVE cosplay, or this isn't something you'll want to do over any other profession, trust me!

    Is it for the attention? Maybe, partially. Let's be honest, we have a short time on this planet and being recognized for something feels great. There is no shame in enjoying attention and I know that's so taboo to say, but really who doesn't like being told their stuff is awesome, whether you want to feel sexy, badass, or creative. It is OK to like this! I want you all to feel that way as a cosplayer! I want you to walk into a con and have a crowd of people snapping your picture, you get to feel like a celebrity for a day AND THEN you can switch back to your normal everyday life as usual. I love giving attention to people that deserve it in my mind, I wanna make them feel the way I like to feel! Going up to someone and asking them if you can take a photo with them and filling them with a feeling of great accomplishment is awesome, and it is nice when people do that for me too! It means the world to me when someone takes time out of their day to stop me for a photo even when I don't have the time for it! Let's be real, if you're an active social media user, a frequent commenter, anyone that puts themselves out there you like some form attention too it is SO far from shameful we need to stop treating it like it is! I should mention that while it is great to enjoy attention, it does become a problem when people are hard to be around and bitter when they're not getting the feedback they envisioned. Don't let it consume you in a negative way, learn from it and keep making stuff, if you keep being positive it will work in your favor in the end!  As long as you're being kind to others, I say go and enjoy all of the praise you get for your work, you deserve it! 

    I think for a lot of us, I know for me, cosplay is like living a short time in another persons skin. Someone you wish you could be, it's like a switch for me. Regular Danielle is a greasy little hermit that doesn't see the light of day for a week or more at a time, social interaction is TERRIFYING for me. I get a physical feeling of dread even getting a phone call. Even replying to messages sometimes fills me with so much anxiety I sit there for 20 minutes trying to compose some sort of response, writing it out and deleting it all, until something comes up and I COMPLETELY forget I meant to reply to this person who I think was fucking awesome to take time out of their day to inbox me! But when I am at a con and I am Zyra, or my WoW character, or some epic as fuck dragon, I am not Danielle anymore. I guess you can compare it to being drunk a little bit, how you suddenly have the balls to say and do what you only wished you could have before. Ha, and sometimes it even gets you in trouble, but HEY you're out doing something that you otherwise would feel incapable of!  It makes YOU approachable, and highlights all of your interests so you immediately have a conversation starter. Oh, you're dressed up as a League character? You now have hours of conversation to talk about to total strangers that you've never connected with before, it's awesome! 

    It's challenging. Being an ex top World of Warcraft raider I developed and obsessive need to progress and compete with anything I commit to until I am doing it to the best of my ability. I don't just "like" things, I let my interests consume my life.  Cosplaying is a much healthier and non-destructive way to focus all of that obsessive energy into something where I create these physical, amazing works of art that even has me saying "wow, I can't even believe I made that, I DID THIS THING!" Have you ever finished a project and just...stared at it for half an hour or so with a sense of fulfillment? It's a natural high and after a while when you get good at making props or costumes, or even getting good at modelling costumes and getting the pictures back...you just feel so accomplished and proud. For me, I can SEE progression with everything I do and it has just helped me so much with my mental health ESPECIALLY during rough times in other aspects of my life. I am a better person since I started putting my work out there, as an artist and as a human being, GO AND LOVE YOURSELF AND BE PROUD OF YOURSELF AND THE THINGS YOU DO! You owe it to yourself!

    AND HEY! You can enjoy cosplay for any reason you like, maybe it helps you in the dating world meet fellow nerds, maybe it's a sexual fetish (but for the love of god do NOT push it on unwilling participants), maybe it's for live action roleplaying because the world is just not good enough on it's own and you want to be engulfed in something better than what the world offers for a short time. It is all cool in my book. You meet friends from all walks of life you otherwise would have no idea existed, like in the photo above, I got to meet/work with all these incredible people FROM ALL OVER THE COUNTRY and OTHER countries!!! The photographer too, everyone involved was such an honor to work with. You learn skills not just with crafting but improving as a person, how to handle criticism, growing thicker skin against people trying to bring you down. It's such a positive hobby and you can do it for whatever the hell you like don't let someone tell you you can't! Unless you're one of those weird trendy clown people that lure people into the woods, don't go dressing up for that...what is up with that anyway?


Photo cred:Photographer: facebook.com/DaveYangPhotography 
(left to right) Umbreon- facebook.com/hookedonphoenixxcosplay
Slyveon- facebook.com/GladzyKei
Espeon- Me
Glaceon- facebook.com/CarolineDaweArt
Vaporeon- facebook.com/andyraecosplay
Leafeon- facebook.com/LyzBrickley
Eevee- facebook.com/OfficialBeckaNoel
Jolteon- facebook.com/OfficialJessicaNigri
Flareon- facebook.com/joannamaricosplay