Cosplaying – Bringing Favorite Characters To Life
vBy Brandi Bue
In recent years there has been more coverage of events known
as conventions or “cons” across the world but for some it has been
something they have known about for a while. A con is an event that
allows fans to meet creators, experts, stars, and most importantly
people who share similar interests. Cons also feature many people
who participate in cosplay which is when a person dresses up as their
favorite character. These characters range from anime, cartons, comic
books, live-action movie and television series, video games, and books.
But cosplaying is not just dressing up in a costume, most cosplayers
invest time, money, and effort into creating or commissioning a headto-toe transformation that is one-of-a-kind. Some of these creations
include accessories, facial or body prosthetics, working electronics, or
complex mechanical parts. The cosplayer is tapping into the character
and often the role speaks to them personally according to psychologists
who study cosplayers. Sometimes it’s about being someone completely
different from themselves and sometimes it’s about relating to a
character to cope with trauma. Many cosplayers feel like it’s a type of
performance; it broadcasts a visible and public statement about the
cosplayers’ allegiance to a character or fandom.
Of course, there are some misconceptions about cosplaying.
Cosplayers have been stereotyped as the kind of people who are
unemployed, socially inadequate who like to stay in their basement,
according to Sally Whiting. Brittany Seitz has met people who think it’s
a ploy to gain attention. What cosplayers would like people to know is
that it’s a hobby that many use as a creative outlet. “I’ve met teachers,
doctors, psychologists, bankers, and of course a lot of theater students
and artists while they wore a cosplay they made themselves,” Sally told
me. Brittany told me that dismissing cosplaying as attention seeking
“dismisses the hours of creative work necessary to create a cosplay.
When a person sees someone in a cosplay they only see the end
result. Most don’t see any of the research necessary on the character,
sourcing of materials, assembling, and the occasional mess up when
you have to go back to the drawing board.” For many, cosplaying is
just about a person wanting to make things and dress up in what they
made for a weekend while being surrounded by people with similar
interests. “There’s also the misconception that it’s just a hobby that
wastes money but there are a lot of people out there who do cosplaying
as their job and make a good living. Some cosplayers get paid to visit
conventions or run cosplay contests because they’re that popular that
it’s an advertising opportunity for a lot of brands and conventions.
Some cosplay contests give out a lot of money if you win. And some
cosplayers custom make cosplays and sell them,” Sally added.
Sally Whiting, Brittany Seitz, and Caitlin McGrew are three people
I met who enjoy cosplaying. Each of them enjoy different aspects of
cosplaying and cons and got involved in different ways. But at the
end of the day, the three of them all enjoy spending a day or weekend
surrounded by people with similar interests and showing off their new
cosplay attire.
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Sally Whiting
Sally first started cosplaying
about 4 years ago when she was
invited to a convention in Omaha,
Anime Nebraskon, by a friend.
She knew what cosplaying was
before she attended from cosplay
photographers on art sites and her
friend who had been attending
conventions for a while. She was
interested but she didn’t have a
reason to do it. “It’s like dressing up
for Halloween, which is something
I have always loved, but more
intensive.” As a lot of cosplayers
create their own props or
sometimes even the costumes, it’s
an artistic way to share one’s own
perspective on a character. “Being
an artist, it’s like taking up a new way to make art to get every detail
the way you want it.” Sally tries to take one new cosplay every year, so
she starts by thinking about what TV shows or books she’s been loving
and what characters she likes. “It’s an added bonus if I find a character
I like that also has a really unique look or complicated things I could
try to make for it.” As Sally isn’t the best at sewing yet, she tries her best
to find things that could work and pieces together something using
existing pieces. “I would love to get to the point where I can draw a
costume and take it from paper into a made piece myself.”
Sally’s favorite character to cosplay is one she has been cosplaying
since the beginning. “It’s changed a bit every year. I cosplay a character
named Cecil from the podcast show ‘Welcome to Night Vale.’ It’s
fun because since the character is from a podcast there is no actual
character design. You don’t know what Cecil looks like. So some artists
online have done a lot of fan-art and come up with their own character
design for Cecil and the creators of the podcast have said all of them
could be accurate, there is no set look.” In the future, Sally wants to do
a character with a lot of props. “Maybe some weapons that I can make
out of foam. It would be really fun and a challenge to see how accurate
and realistic I could get it.”
Picking a favorite memory for Sally is hard as she has a lot on the
topic but she enjoys meeting new people. Nebkon, in Nebraska, is the
one con Sally attends and every year there are about 4 to 5 thousand
people in a convention center for three days straight. “Checking out
each other’s cosplay, going to discussion panels, and basically geeking
out about something that in most everyday life you don’t get the
chance to talk about with people.” Many times there are newcomers,
but a lot of the time there are the regulars from the previous years.
“You might not know their name, or what they look like on a regular
day, but when they’re at the con in a cosplay you know, they’re still
your friend from the year before.” For Nebkon, Sally has met people
who have flown from a coast to Nebraska just for the convention. “A
friend I take with me now has a mission every year to take a photo
with the same people she saw the year before. So far she has three years
of photos with most of the same cosplayers.”