Ever wondered what cosplay looks like? To me, it looks like this.
When I was in school, I loved to watch videos of masquerade performances from cons in the USA. I found the work of people like Mango Sirene or Coconut Bubble Sex Cosplay —don’t let that name deceive you, the team is safe for work— inspiring and fascinating. That made the discovery of cons in the UK an exciting revelation, of course. I got to work immediately, teaching myself how to put a costume together to attend my first con, Birmingham MCM 2014, with a cosplay of Neo from the animated series RWBY. I’d debut my first cosplay performance in the stage of that same con in 2021, winning the masquerade with my take on Trish from the anime JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure.
I usually pick characters who touch my soul, that make me want to be better in some way. I enjoy embodying characters whose strength, kindness, beauty and other qualities inspire me to improve and grow. It really makes me smile when I connect with other people by cosplaying characters like these. For example, whenever I cosplay Rengoku from Demon Slayer, or Luffy from One Piece, there is always a young person whose eyes glow upon seeing me, brightly like they never thought they could see someone or something so great. I love bringing the joy these characters inspire into the world.
I like to think I don’t just cosplay a character, I really become them for a day. I embody them in everything that I do —or at least, I try to. I’d be happy to perform as different characters for events, interacting with the public through the day.
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