cosplayers from which again probably
tell about what I am wearing is dressing
up as a character from any series or
video game or anime that you like and
the first character that I have ever
cost played was this character called
Poland from my favorite anime called
Hetalia which talks about history
portraying every nation as a person i
remade the cross human this is how it
looks now and to start I would like to
share with you my very first ever anime
convention cosplay experience that day
last summer I woke up at 6:00 or should
I say I got out of bed at 6:00 as I
didn’t sleep almost at all the previous
night still having the butterflies in my
stomach I put on my costume did my
makeup I put on my wig while I was doing
that all of the fears came back to me
what if people don’t accept me what if
my costume looks bad in the car I kept
on changing the radio stations just to
get my mind off of what was slowly
taking me over which was fear and it was
slowly eating me alive to be honest and
we finally got there
the convention center maybe wasn’t as
big as the ones I used to see on TV or
on YouTube but it was still big for
Polish criteria so I got out of the car
I kissed my mom goodbye and started
walking very slowly towards actual gate
and with every step I was more and more
sure that my cosplay looked terrible
that I wasn’t the right body type for
the character and then my wig looked
totally out of place because it wasn’t
the exact wig that the character had and
my thoughts were suddenly interrupted by
my phone ringing it scared me a lot and
made me jump people around me looked at
me really weird when I jumped to take
here my phone
I picked it up and it was my mom she
told me to turn around and look at her
because she was still there with her car
parked in the parking lot and she told
me to walk straight with my head up high
because I have been working for months
and months to make this costume and I
have been really really excited for this
day and today that day is my day and I
cannot let anyone and I repeat anyone
ruin it for me by telling me that I look
bad
so I heard
her phone call made me much much more
sure of what I was actually doing so I
started walking more confidently and I
got to the gate and in front of me a
completely new world appeared the colors
the costumes they were like everything
that I have ever dreamed about ever
since I became an anime fan the smell of
freshly brewed tea mixed with the smell
of manga many people were wearing
costumes just like me blasting anime
music running back and forth buying
merchandise others they just met some
new friends and now they were sitting in
the middle of the actual hall fangirling
about their favorite characters some
were eating sushi drinking bubble tea or
sitting in the middle of the floor just
as I said all of this made such a nice
atmosphere it made me feel welcome to
make me meet no one looked at me weird
and if they looked at me it was just
because they wanted to appreciate my
costume so after getting used to the
whole con experience I finally decided
that it was possible for me to eat
something as my hands were and trembling
that much anymore so I sat down at the
only empty table there and after feeling
a bit lonely because I was the only
person there there wasn’t any groups of
people around me someone came up to me
actually three people came up to me and
they asked me if I could see if they
could sit with me because that was the
only free table and I said yeah sure go
ahead you know I have nothing else
better to do so why not let’s just talk
and after talking for a couple of
minutes we became really really close
friends
we realized that we shared the same
passion for the same animes we like the
same characters so after a couple of
minutes they asked me if I wanted to
come along with them and I said sure not
knowing what I was getting myself into
and since that day I still keep in
contact with them even though I live
abroad I don’t go to Warsaw that often
and that breakfast experience was
probably what changed my whole
perception of the anime convention I
realized that since I was in a costume
that I automatically put on the
character the personality of the very
character that I was cosplaying and that
was what made people want to talk to me
I absolutely fell in love with
cosplay because it is not about your
skin color your hair color your body
type or your eye color as for the last
one I thought it was that’s why from my
first character I chose a character with
green eyes but it is actually about the
passion and the experience and the time
and effort you are willing to put into
every single cosplay that matters
cosplay sparked a lot of my creativity I
only realized this when I was sewing
pieces of material together for the
first time to make sixteen oversized
bows for our group Sailor Moon costume
or I was simply looking around my closet
for something that L from Death Note
would wear I absolutely had the best
experience because in the end it is not
about how your costume looks in the eyes
of others it is how it looks in your
eyes and if you are proud of yourself
you can you the cost you deemed the
cosplay right and this creativity that I
just described also managed to bleed
into my everyday schoolwork I became
much more open to suggestions I started
looking at different problems in school
on a different way I also signed up for
a maker time class which allowed me to
make props because it make your time you
are allowed to make whatever you want
any project as long as you give a list
of the materials that you want how long
you will make it in and what the actual
thing is and here you have a picture of
me making the cosplay props for our
Sailor Moon group cosplay that you saw
earlier cosplay is also a lot it
involves a lot of problem solving
whether it is drawing out alternative
ways that your character could dress or
was completely gender-bending a
character like I did here the
problem-solving that i managed to gain
during my cosplay experience also bled
into my schoolwork i’m i realized that i
have been taken on harder and harder
challenges because i had much more ideas
and much more will to actually try to
take on these challenges in areas
especially in science and math as they
are not my strongest ones when i go to
cons it makes me really happy to see
people that run up to me want to take
pictures with me hug me or I remember
one time last year
Sophia’s someone carried me through the
convention center because I was just
cosplaying their favorite character so
when you go to a con you see people of
many skill levels from people who just
wear a wig because they wanted to people
who are masters at wig styling prop
making sewing all types of material
because they have been doing it for
years but the good thing is that no one
no matter what your skill level is will
ever judge you in front of others
because they know how much time you have
put into every single piece of that
cosplay when I go to cons I myself take
a lot of pictures with cosplayers
because it is my way of showing them
that I appreciate what they do that I
appreciate every single character that
they think of that they can cosplay and
it also makes me happy when people want
to take pictures with me now you may ask
yourself why would you care why would
you care about people who dress up as
fictional characters just to walk around
in a costume for a couple of hours why
did they so spend so much time effort
and money into making a fictional
character come to life and everyone has
a different answer for this some people
just do it because they feel much more
confident when people don’t know who
they are actually others just want to
bring their character to life and put a
smile on someone’s face and make their
day just a little bit better if someone
still thinks that cosplay is a bad hobby
I can tell you so many reasons why it is
not because in the end when you think
about it it is not only the profits and
the benefits that make a hobby
worthwhile but it is also the
self-satisfaction and the passion that
matters in the long run and if I am
proud to make cosplays of crazy
characters just to walk around in it for
a couple of hours even though many
people will not even recognize my
character and I am proud of what I do I
feel like this makes my hobby which is
cosplay a hobby worthwhile and this I am
proud of every single costume I have
made no matter how much time have put in
it the easiest and the hardest costumes
are always the ones that make me the
most proud because they show my journey
from becoming a very very shy
skill skill lacking cosplayer to the
point where I am not scared of being a
character pretending to be that
character doing their movements speaking
as the character and I feel like this
just shows how much I have grown as a
person and as a cosplayer and this is
why I cosplay thank you
[Applause]
[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]
tell about what I am wearing is dressing
up as a character from any series or
video game or anime that you like and
the first character that I have ever
cost played was this character called
Poland from my favorite anime called
Hetalia which talks about history
portraying every nation as a person i
remade the cross human this is how it
looks now and to start I would like to
share with you my very first ever anime
convention cosplay experience that day
last summer I woke up at 6:00 or should
I say I got out of bed at 6:00 as I
didn’t sleep almost at all the previous
night still having the butterflies in my
stomach I put on my costume did my
makeup I put on my wig while I was doing
that all of the fears came back to me
what if people don’t accept me what if
my costume looks bad in the car I kept
on changing the radio stations just to
get my mind off of what was slowly
taking me over which was fear and it was
slowly eating me alive to be honest and
we finally got there
the convention center maybe wasn’t as
big as the ones I used to see on TV or
on YouTube but it was still big for
Polish criteria so I got out of the car
I kissed my mom goodbye and started
walking very slowly towards actual gate
and with every step I was more and more
sure that my cosplay looked terrible
that I wasn’t the right body type for
the character and then my wig looked
totally out of place because it wasn’t
the exact wig that the character had and
my thoughts were suddenly interrupted by
my phone ringing it scared me a lot and
made me jump people around me looked at
me really weird when I jumped to take
here my phone
I picked it up and it was my mom she
told me to turn around and look at her
because she was still there with her car
parked in the parking lot and she told
me to walk straight with my head up high
because I have been working for months
and months to make this costume and I
have been really really excited for this
day and today that day is my day and I
cannot let anyone and I repeat anyone
ruin it for me by telling me that I look
bad
so I heard
her phone call made me much much more
sure of what I was actually doing so I
started walking more confidently and I
got to the gate and in front of me a
completely new world appeared the colors
the costumes they were like everything
that I have ever dreamed about ever
since I became an anime fan the smell of
freshly brewed tea mixed with the smell
of manga many people were wearing
costumes just like me blasting anime
music running back and forth buying
merchandise others they just met some
new friends and now they were sitting in
the middle of the actual hall fangirling
about their favorite characters some
were eating sushi drinking bubble tea or
sitting in the middle of the floor just
as I said all of this made such a nice
atmosphere it made me feel welcome to
make me meet no one looked at me weird
and if they looked at me it was just
because they wanted to appreciate my
costume so after getting used to the
whole con experience I finally decided
that it was possible for me to eat
something as my hands were and trembling
that much anymore so I sat down at the
only empty table there and after feeling
a bit lonely because I was the only
person there there wasn’t any groups of
people around me someone came up to me
actually three people came up to me and
they asked me if I could see if they
could sit with me because that was the
only free table and I said yeah sure go
ahead you know I have nothing else
better to do so why not let’s just talk
and after talking for a couple of
minutes we became really really close
friends
we realized that we shared the same
passion for the same animes we like the
same characters so after a couple of
minutes they asked me if I wanted to
come along with them and I said sure not
knowing what I was getting myself into
and since that day I still keep in
contact with them even though I live
abroad I don’t go to Warsaw that often
and that breakfast experience was
probably what changed my whole
perception of the anime convention I
realized that since I was in a costume
that I automatically put on the
character the personality of the very
character that I was cosplaying and that
was what made people want to talk to me
I absolutely fell in love with
cosplay because it is not about your
skin color your hair color your body
type or your eye color as for the last
one I thought it was that’s why from my
first character I chose a character with
green eyes but it is actually about the
passion and the experience and the time
and effort you are willing to put into
every single cosplay that matters
cosplay sparked a lot of my creativity I
only realized this when I was sewing
pieces of material together for the
first time to make sixteen oversized
bows for our group Sailor Moon costume
or I was simply looking around my closet
for something that L from Death Note
would wear I absolutely had the best
experience because in the end it is not
about how your costume looks in the eyes
of others it is how it looks in your
eyes and if you are proud of yourself
you can you the cost you deemed the
cosplay right and this creativity that I
just described also managed to bleed
into my everyday schoolwork I became
much more open to suggestions I started
looking at different problems in school
on a different way I also signed up for
a maker time class which allowed me to
make props because it make your time you
are allowed to make whatever you want
any project as long as you give a list
of the materials that you want how long
you will make it in and what the actual
thing is and here you have a picture of
me making the cosplay props for our
Sailor Moon group cosplay that you saw
earlier cosplay is also a lot it
involves a lot of problem solving
whether it is drawing out alternative
ways that your character could dress or
was completely gender-bending a
character like I did here the
problem-solving that i managed to gain
during my cosplay experience also bled
into my schoolwork i’m i realized that i
have been taken on harder and harder
challenges because i had much more ideas
and much more will to actually try to
take on these challenges in areas
especially in science and math as they
are not my strongest ones when i go to
cons it makes me really happy to see
people that run up to me want to take
pictures with me hug me or I remember
one time last year
Sophia’s someone carried me through the
convention center because I was just
cosplaying their favorite character so
when you go to a con you see people of
many skill levels from people who just
wear a wig because they wanted to people
who are masters at wig styling prop
making sewing all types of material
because they have been doing it for
years but the good thing is that no one
no matter what your skill level is will
ever judge you in front of others
because they know how much time you have
put into every single piece of that
cosplay when I go to cons I myself take
a lot of pictures with cosplayers
because it is my way of showing them
that I appreciate what they do that I
appreciate every single character that
they think of that they can cosplay and
it also makes me happy when people want
to take pictures with me now you may ask
yourself why would you care why would
you care about people who dress up as
fictional characters just to walk around
in a costume for a couple of hours why
did they so spend so much time effort
and money into making a fictional
character come to life and everyone has
a different answer for this some people
just do it because they feel much more
confident when people don’t know who
they are actually others just want to
bring their character to life and put a
smile on someone’s face and make their
day just a little bit better if someone
still thinks that cosplay is a bad hobby
I can tell you so many reasons why it is
not because in the end when you think
about it it is not only the profits and
the benefits that make a hobby
worthwhile but it is also the
self-satisfaction and the passion that
matters in the long run and if I am
proud to make cosplays of crazy
characters just to walk around in it for
a couple of hours even though many
people will not even recognize my
character and I am proud of what I do I
feel like this makes my hobby which is
cosplay a hobby worthwhile and this I am
proud of every single costume I have
made no matter how much time have put in
it the easiest and the hardest costumes
are always the ones that make me the
most proud because they show my journey
from becoming a very very shy
skill skill lacking cosplayer to the
point where I am not scared of being a
character pretending to be that
character doing their movements speaking
as the character and I feel like this
just shows how much I have grown as a
person and as a cosplayer and this is
why I cosplay thank you
[Applause]
[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]
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