“And when that happen it inspired me to change my life around”
When I was younger I was overweight and being subjugated to “you can’t do that, you’re too big, you can’t go on this ride because you’re too fat or you can’t play this sport because we don’t want you on our team”. Throughout my life it has been a struggle with weight loss until a breaking point when I was in high school. I was actually so distraught, couldn’t get over my weight, I actually OD. And when that happen it inspired me to change my life around. Instead of saying I was going to lose the weight I actually went to the gym and started losing weight. And with that came confidence. The first time I thought, hey I actually fit into a costume. When Halloween came around I was able to dress up in a character that I liked for the first time.
I was with someone for five years and we had a break up and I was just feeling alone and I didn’t know what to do, where to turn and I started reading more comics again. I realized that I reflected a lot with this character Jason Todd that I cosplay as. Going out to the cosplay community, they accept you with open arms. I went to my first convention and I never look back. That’s basically what happened. Cosplay kind of gives you confidence because it allows you to project yourself as the character that you identify as, so it’s inspirational for you to don a costume that is your hero. And you portray that hero, it builds you up. Batman wouldn’t do that so you wouldn’t do that. Red Hood would actually try harder so you try harder in your normal life.
I have tons of plushes. My very first stuffed animal was my very favorite. It was actually this torn up bunny with a pink nose and the reason why I had a connection with it is because my mom used to use it to tell me stories. She used to talk in funny voice and say “oh this is your little bunny”. I remember losing it at five years old and I was devastated. That was my stuffed animal and I loved it and still love it to this day.