“To find a community like this where it’s OK to be weird, is the greatest thing”
I was the only person in my family that wasn’t all sports and athleticism. I was a giant theater nerd so I even felt like a black sheep in my own family. I was at the same school from preschool all the way to graduation, so once you find your spot it’s hard to move around. I never really fit in anywhere. Once I got out of school I found cosplay which is the best thing that could have ever happened to me. I personally struggle with, not dysphoria but something along the lines of it. I covered all the mirrors in my house because I didn’t want to look at myself. Cosplay gives me that confidence back again. So, to find a community like this where it’s OK to be weird, is the greatest thing that could have ever happened to me. It’s saved my life, genuinely.
It’s what I do now. It’s what I do for a job. I work in the convention circuits. I strive to make those safe spaces for people who may not feel like they fit in, maybe a little weird and a little out there, but they will always have a place in the cosplay community. It’s what I like working towards now.
I’m dressed as Bill Cipher from Gravity Falls. I’m dressed as a female version. He’s literally a floating triangle. He’s modeled after the eye of providence on the one dollar bill. That’s it, he’s just a triangle with one eyeball. The great thing about that is I could take that base and just run with it. He is a villain but he’s fun. He’s one of those characters that is unapologetically himself and that’s not the best all the time. He’s just a fun character and I generally gravitate towards side characters or villains because they’re more fun to play.
I have two stuffed animals that are important to me. They are stuffed tigers. One my boyfriend gave to me. He bought it for me when he was doing a semester in DC. He bought it at the Smithsonian Zoo and brought it back to me because I told him that he needed to steal me a tiger cub because they just had tiger cubs born there. He said, “this is the best I can do”. The other one, me and my best friend got identical tigers when we were in New York from FAO Schwarz. She lives on the other side of the country from me and my boyfriend is currently in Ohio so, because I can’t have them close to me I still have these two tigers close to me. One of them has no stripes left because I’ve snuggled it to death. They still are very important to me because they represent the people that are in my life, currently and can’t be right next to me when I need them most.