so I obviously didn’t get the dress code
memo but that’s okay anyways hi my name
is Nara despite my dress at the moment I
typically look like this I’m your usual
korean-american student who dyes her
hair one too many times tends to fall
asleep in class and accidentally blows
up cans of soup in the microwave sorry
about that but sometimes on certain
weekend’s of the year I actually look
like this I actually look like this
like this or like this and you might be
wondering I’m probably not doing all
this for nothing
I’m not putting on crazy costumes in
contacts just for fun and actually ever
since sixth grade I’ve been dedicating a
good time of mice a good time my hobby
in free time for a hobby called cosplay
and your first question probably is what
is cosplay it’s actually an easy
question to answer it’s a combination of
the two words costume and roleplay and
the second question you’re probably
asking is why am I doing this this
obviously isn’t some kind of hobby
that’s easy to come across like sports
are music and my story starts in
elementary school um I wasn’t exactly
the cutest kid out there or the most
popular one and that led to an awful lot
of bullying unfortunately and I wasn’t
exactly a very confrontational kid when
I got bullied or when I heard insults
coming my way I just pretend I never
heard them and I put my head down keep
reading drawing or writing and this went
on for several years and you have to
understand when you’re bullied it really
does make your type yourself inside and
out and while you’ve got a lot of people
saying oh don’t change yourself for
anybody or if you don’t like yourself
change yourself I tried both and that
didn’t work I actually ended up hating
myself even more because no matter what
I tried I seemed not to I didn’t really
seem like I was satisfying anybody so
what did I end up doing I decided well
if I wasn’t gonna please everybody
I’ll just please myself
even if it meant having a good time on
my own so I turned to my comforts
I turned to anime Japanese cartoons
manga and video games as a source of
comfort and you have to understand it’s
the characters I really fell in love
with they were written with they were
just written so realistically and
beautifully they had their own likes
dislikes friends family strengths and
weaknesses and I saw these characters
that I controlled in video games are the
ones I watched and the ones I read and I
wanted to become like them
they were my role models I wanted to be
as strong as a legendary soldier big
boss I wanted to be as friendly as mean
Ichigo and I wanted to be as magical as
Kier black and white in a way I ended up
being myself by being someone else if
that makes sense I took the bits and
pieces of every character I admired and
I tried to put them in my own self and
you laid them for my own good and this
was my first lesson in empathy through
the characters that I saw going through
their own struggles I’d see myself going
through them and in a way it just made
me fall in love with a medium even more
I found comfort in these
larger-than-life fictional characters
that were there for me when no one else
was as far as I was concerned they were
better than the real friends I never got
to have and sometime in December before
my seventh grade my friends on the East
Coast had uploaded a photo of themselves
going to a convention and it this is
usually things you’d see it like Anime
Expo in Los Angeles San Diego comic-con
or katsu con in DC I don’t exactly
remember which one they went to but they
were dressed up as a black character
from the webcam I called Homestuck and
it absolutely blew my mind because this
was a friend I just met through the
comic and they had just become one of my
favorite characters they had the costume
and they had the face paint they had the
makeup and everything and it just blew
my mind because they just as easily
became one of the characters I admired
and I’ve been following for years at
this point and one link led to another
and before I knew it I was down a rabbit
hole of communities on communities of
people who would spend time effort and
their own money becoming these
characters that they loved so much and
going to social events that celebrated
them and while I was doing this and just
sell it and just researching and looking
up photos and can
pensions I was wondering where had these
people been my whole life when I was
being isolated from being a weird nerd
or a geek where were these people that
we’re loving the same things I did and
probably with a bigger passion than I
did
these were my people where had they been
when I was being bullied for being a
nerd my whole life but you know it’s
better late than never and before I knew
it at my first convention in middle
school I made my own costumes and I just
started going to conventions even though
they weren’t the best costumes out there
and I was literally too scared to move
at my first convention it was a great
experience because it’s more than
controlling a character in a video game
or watching them on TV you’re becoming
them for a little bit and even this fits
for just a day a weekend or a few hours
even it’s really something else you
become that character and you get to
pretend you’re that character you become
your role models or the ones are the
characters you love and you appreciate
so much and that’s just when you’re
going out and Malone when you’re at a
convention with other cosplayers it’s
honestly an experience I can only
describe as magical you’re surrounded by
complete strangers but at the same time
you’re already the best of friends
because there’s something you can always
rely on to start a conversation
you’re already passionate about a
character or assume these are from and
you’re dressed up as them so why not go
up and say they’ll you’ll like their
costume or acting character with them
and play out those wacky dynamics you
see in movies and TV and comics all the
time in real life and trust me it’s
something you want to see so anyways
this community it really was my Savior
and it really became my family and my
friends Circle what I never had one I
can’t tell you how many friends I made
through cosplay just because they came
up to me and said they liked my costume
or the friends I’d become closer with
because we struggled together and making
those costumes probably five hours
before the convention it’s just really
something else I really don’t know how
to describe it other than magical
encouraging empowering and it’s just
incredible it really is I cosplay
because I’m showing my thanks and it’s a
tribute to the characters and the series
I love so much that have gotten me
through the darkest times in my life
and it’s helped me open up and not to be
afraid of whatever people are thinking
about me because obviously we’re all
dressed up as fictional characters we
obviously have some kind of baseline
dorkiness to work off of for other
people it’s because it’s an escape for
the tough times in life when they can
just pretend to be someone that’s
keeping them alive or keeping them going
or makes them smile every now and then
and for others it’s just escape out of
an introverted shell I used to be into
to kind of step into someone else’s
shoes
pretend you’re then and take what you
love about that character and put it
into your own character after you’ve
taken off the costume if you’re thinking
about getting as a cosplayer you’re
interested in just doing it for one time
out of a day or just making something
yourself go for it what’s stopping you
it obviously haven’t stopped me so
please think about it
and if you’re really interested in it
give it a shot because I promise you
it’s one of the best decisions you’ll ever make in your life
memo but that’s okay anyways hi my name
is Nara despite my dress at the moment I
typically look like this I’m your usual
korean-american student who dyes her
hair one too many times tends to fall
asleep in class and accidentally blows
up cans of soup in the microwave sorry
about that but sometimes on certain
weekend’s of the year I actually look
like this I actually look like this
like this or like this and you might be
wondering I’m probably not doing all
this for nothing
I’m not putting on crazy costumes in
contacts just for fun and actually ever
since sixth grade I’ve been dedicating a
good time of mice a good time my hobby
in free time for a hobby called cosplay
and your first question probably is what
is cosplay it’s actually an easy
question to answer it’s a combination of
the two words costume and roleplay and
the second question you’re probably
asking is why am I doing this this
obviously isn’t some kind of hobby
that’s easy to come across like sports
are music and my story starts in
elementary school um I wasn’t exactly
the cutest kid out there or the most
popular one and that led to an awful lot
of bullying unfortunately and I wasn’t
exactly a very confrontational kid when
I got bullied or when I heard insults
coming my way I just pretend I never
heard them and I put my head down keep
reading drawing or writing and this went
on for several years and you have to
understand when you’re bullied it really
does make your type yourself inside and
out and while you’ve got a lot of people
saying oh don’t change yourself for
anybody or if you don’t like yourself
change yourself I tried both and that
didn’t work I actually ended up hating
myself even more because no matter what
I tried I seemed not to I didn’t really
seem like I was satisfying anybody so
what did I end up doing I decided well
if I wasn’t gonna please everybody
I’ll just please myself
even if it meant having a good time on
my own so I turned to my comforts
I turned to anime Japanese cartoons
manga and video games as a source of
comfort and you have to understand it’s
the characters I really fell in love
with they were written with they were
just written so realistically and
beautifully they had their own likes
dislikes friends family strengths and
weaknesses and I saw these characters
that I controlled in video games are the
ones I watched and the ones I read and I
wanted to become like them
they were my role models I wanted to be
as strong as a legendary soldier big
boss I wanted to be as friendly as mean
Ichigo and I wanted to be as magical as
Kier black and white in a way I ended up
being myself by being someone else if
that makes sense I took the bits and
pieces of every character I admired and
I tried to put them in my own self and
you laid them for my own good and this
was my first lesson in empathy through
the characters that I saw going through
their own struggles I’d see myself going
through them and in a way it just made
me fall in love with a medium even more
I found comfort in these
larger-than-life fictional characters
that were there for me when no one else
was as far as I was concerned they were
better than the real friends I never got
to have and sometime in December before
my seventh grade my friends on the East
Coast had uploaded a photo of themselves
going to a convention and it this is
usually things you’d see it like Anime
Expo in Los Angeles San Diego comic-con
or katsu con in DC I don’t exactly
remember which one they went to but they
were dressed up as a black character
from the webcam I called Homestuck and
it absolutely blew my mind because this
was a friend I just met through the
comic and they had just become one of my
favorite characters they had the costume
and they had the face paint they had the
makeup and everything and it just blew
my mind because they just as easily
became one of the characters I admired
and I’ve been following for years at
this point and one link led to another
and before I knew it I was down a rabbit
hole of communities on communities of
people who would spend time effort and
their own money becoming these
characters that they loved so much and
going to social events that celebrated
them and while I was doing this and just
sell it and just researching and looking
up photos and can
pensions I was wondering where had these
people been my whole life when I was
being isolated from being a weird nerd
or a geek where were these people that
we’re loving the same things I did and
probably with a bigger passion than I
did
these were my people where had they been
when I was being bullied for being a
nerd my whole life but you know it’s
better late than never and before I knew
it at my first convention in middle
school I made my own costumes and I just
started going to conventions even though
they weren’t the best costumes out there
and I was literally too scared to move
at my first convention it was a great
experience because it’s more than
controlling a character in a video game
or watching them on TV you’re becoming
them for a little bit and even this fits
for just a day a weekend or a few hours
even it’s really something else you
become that character and you get to
pretend you’re that character you become
your role models or the ones are the
characters you love and you appreciate
so much and that’s just when you’re
going out and Malone when you’re at a
convention with other cosplayers it’s
honestly an experience I can only
describe as magical you’re surrounded by
complete strangers but at the same time
you’re already the best of friends
because there’s something you can always
rely on to start a conversation
you’re already passionate about a
character or assume these are from and
you’re dressed up as them so why not go
up and say they’ll you’ll like their
costume or acting character with them
and play out those wacky dynamics you
see in movies and TV and comics all the
time in real life and trust me it’s
something you want to see so anyways
this community it really was my Savior
and it really became my family and my
friends Circle what I never had one I
can’t tell you how many friends I made
through cosplay just because they came
up to me and said they liked my costume
or the friends I’d become closer with
because we struggled together and making
those costumes probably five hours
before the convention it’s just really
something else I really don’t know how
to describe it other than magical
encouraging empowering and it’s just
incredible it really is I cosplay
because I’m showing my thanks and it’s a
tribute to the characters and the series
I love so much that have gotten me
through the darkest times in my life
and it’s helped me open up and not to be
afraid of whatever people are thinking
about me because obviously we’re all
dressed up as fictional characters we
obviously have some kind of baseline
dorkiness to work off of for other
people it’s because it’s an escape for
the tough times in life when they can
just pretend to be someone that’s
keeping them alive or keeping them going
or makes them smile every now and then
and for others it’s just escape out of
an introverted shell I used to be into
to kind of step into someone else’s
shoes
pretend you’re then and take what you
love about that character and put it
into your own character after you’ve
taken off the costume if you’re thinking
about getting as a cosplayer you’re
interested in just doing it for one time
out of a day or just making something
yourself go for it what’s stopping you
it obviously haven’t stopped me so
please think about it
and if you’re really interested in it
give it a shot because I promise you
it’s one of the best decisions you’ll ever make in your life
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