cosplay as but which you can probably
already tell is dressing up as a certain
character from any movie TV show anime
video game or whatever your heart
desires and going to places for example
anime conventions to share your work and
spend time with people like you and the
very first cosplay that I have ever made
was of this character called Poland from
an anime called Hetalia which shows
countries as personifications and shows
the history through their lives and only
after getting used to cosplaying a
couple of times I remade the character
and this is how it looks now there is
obviously a lot of work that I can
improve on and this is definitely not
the last costume that I will be making
and to start off I would like to share
with you a little story of my very first
anime convention so that day I woke up
at 6 or should I say I got out of bed at
6
as I haven’t slept the previous night
also almost at all still having the
butterflies in my stomach I started
dressing up putting on my wig doing my
makeup my contact lenses and then the
fear skin came back to me what if people
don’t like my costume what if people see
something wrong with it because I messed
up the colors or the wig is not perfect
at this point my experience became
something more of a stress than an
enjoyment but I decided to ignore it and
try to enjoy the day so I went
downstairs in our house in Poland and
told my mum that I was ready to go my
mum could obviously tell that something
was wrong because of how always open and
laughing and happy I was but she decided
not to ask we got into the car and my
hands are trembling so much that the
only thing I was capable of doing was
changing the radio stations for half an
hour when we got got there I saw the
convention center right in front of me
only a couple of metres away
there were people going there despite
the very early hour I kissed my mom
goodbye I got out of the car and I
started walking towards the center and
then suddenly something just forced me
to stop I wasn’t able to walk I wasn’t
able to think I was just standing there
I felt that every single person that was
passing by was looking at me and they
weren’t looking at me because they liked
my costume or they recognized the
character but they were looking at me
because
something was wrong so I wasn’t able to
do anything and I got really really
scared when suddenly my phone rang I
picked it up just realized that it was
my mom she told me that she’s still in
the car couple of meters away and that
she can see what’s happening and she
told me that today is my day that I have
worked on this costume for months and
months and I should not let anyone say
that it looks wrong or something is
wrong because today is my day and no one
can stop me from having fun I really
really thanked her because I don’t think
that I would be able to actually attend
that convention without her words and I
started walking towards the Khan Center
once more and when I got there a
completely new world open in front of me
something that I have never seen before
in real life there were people running
around in costumes from enemies that I
knew from video games that I my friends
used to play they were buying things
eating food making new friends some just
met a couple of random people that
shared the same interests and now we’re
sitting in the middle of the con room
just to make friends and talk about
their favorite animes the that Monsieur
was so friendly and so different from
whatever I have ever seen before that my
stress completely eliminated itself
right away I started walking more
confident and decided to get some food
because I was really hungry and that was
the moment where I realized that I’m
able to pick a fork up without having it
fallen to the ground once more and I
said it the only empty table look at
that looking at the fact that there were
30,000 people at that convention that
day and I started eating and there was a
group of people I could tell that some
of them knew each other from before and
others just met each other and they
asked if they could sit with me as those
were the only empty seats in the whole
room I said of course wanting to make
friends because a lot of my friends in
Poland don’t even know what anime is so
they sat down and after a while we
started talking we started talking about
anime videogames about cosplay and we
found out that we have a lot in common
we started taking pictures doing skits
with our characters and after a while we
real good friends and even though I live
abroad I still talk to them from time to
time when I need help with picking out a
wig or the color materials for my next
cosplay cosplay helped me out a lot and
that was and the lunch the breakfast
experience was the moment I realized how
much my perception of the world changed
just because I was in a costume I
automatically took on the personality of
the character I became that character I
walked like them talked like them did
the things that they would do counting
eating the foods that they would which I
usually don’t eat and because in cosplay
it is not about your eye color your hair
color your body type as for the first
one I thought it was that’s why for my
first character I chose a character with
green eyes but as you can see it’s not a
problem anymore
and it is actually about the positivity
and the time you’re willing to put into
a cosplay that matters in the long run
if you are proud of something then why
would you stop yourself from doing it
just because you’re different from
people around you just because people
don’t understand you cosplay helped my
creativity a lot whether it was sewing
bows for our first Sailor Moon cosplay
last year for Halloween for a contest
which we actually won with my friends or
it was looking for things that L from
deathnote would wear I was being much
more creative than I could have ever
imagined I also managed to put this
creativity into my schoolwork trying to
find new ways of solving problems and
answering questions I also managed to
sign up for a maker time class in our
school which pretty much allows you to
make any project you want just if you
have the proposal and the list of
materials needed and the estimated time
that you would like to make it in here
you can see me doing one of the props
for our Sailor Moon group cosplay
cosplay also helped me with problem
solving it takes a lot of efforts to
work on a budget as a lot of cosplayers
do not have that much money to buy
cosplays online from Japan which takes
two months to ship not knowing the size
because the Japanese and Chinese sizers
completely different from American and
European a lot of cosplayers make their
cosplays from scratch
it is choosing out materials or buying
wigs or styling wigs themselves they
need to work on a budget and this may
involve gender-bending a character or
drawing out alternative ways that the
character could possibly dress if they
were in a different universe for example
from this prom solving also helped me
out a lot in school I realized that I
became much more open to suggestions and
I became much more open to finding new
ways to answer problems to solve
problems that I never thought I could
solve before in areas especially math
and science which were never my best
subjects in school it makes me really
really happy to see people run to me at
conventions just because they recognize
the character or because they want to
take a picture with me and I too love
taking pictures with cosplayers whether
it is a character that I admire or does
a cosplayer that I know from the
internet I just want to tell them to
keep going because what they are doing
is a form of art and if this is what
they love to do and mind some of these
people have been doing it for years and
years and has become their part-time
jobs they go to conventions all around
the world selling pictures of themselves
in cosplays and I really feel that this
is something that people need to
appreciate more because it is really a
form of art and sorry and if they are
really really proud of what they’re
doing I think this is the most important
thing in their lives if this is their
passion then why would they stop so as
you can see cosplay helped me out a lot
I am standing here doing a TED talk
dressed up as a post-apocalyptic soldier
even though if someone came up to me
last year and told me that I would be
running around a convention center doing
a TED talk in a costume
meeting new people going to places where
there is 30,000 or more people I would
have completely laughed it off and said
that I would love to but I never would
have the confidence to do so but now
here I am standing in front of all of
you and I can proudly say that I am that
I am a fangirl I write stories online I
published them about my favorite
characters I dress up as crazy
characters in my free time and I spent
hours and hours making cosplays that I
only wear for a couple of hours and you
might be asking yourself why why would I
do it why would anyone do it and
everyone has a different answer to this
some people just don’t feel good when
they are themselves some people really
really want to be a different character
even if it is for a couple of hours they
just become more social people they open
up make friends which is very very hard
for some of them others as I said is
their job and they have been doing it
for years and years and sometimes they
just want to bring their character to
life because they admire that character
or they want to put a smile on someone’s
face just to make their day a little bit
better and if that is what they’re happy
to do and that is what they’re willing
to spend their time on I think this is
amazing and if someone still thinks that
cosplayer costume making is a very bad
hobby I would just like to say that it
is not the profit or the benefit that
matter in the long run it is also the
satisfaction and self-confidence that is
the most important part and that is what
you will look back when you’re in the
future and if I am proud of making
cosplays from the easiest ones just when
I was starting all the way to the harder
ones I think I have a world while hobby
and this is why a cosplay thank you
[Applause] [Music]