I was swiping through old convention photos the other day. When I was going through my photos, I laughed at myself because I saw a cosplay from several years ago that I used to wear a lot. I laughed because the cosplay was an old Halloween costume and not comic-book-accurate. A few days passed and I had a thought pop into my head. I thought it was sad that I had laughed at my old cosplay photos. Cosplay, like any other hobby, improves with more experience. I think it’s important to embrace my old photos to show how far I have come in cosplay.

When I started cosplaying, I was a college student, so reusing old Halloween costumes saved me a lot of money. If there’s anything to be told about Spirit Halloween costumes, the quality of the costumes is poor. Surprisingly, this costume lasted several years past my college Halloween days before the costume ripped and I had to throw it away. While thrifting has helped, cosplay is still expensive and the cosplays I do now, I wouldn’t have been able to afford while I was in college.

As I started to gain more confidence in cosplay, I wanted to expand my knowledge. I have been wearing wigs for several years and it’s one of my favorite parts of cosplay is if I get to wear a wig. Recently, I went to the eye doctor because I want to start incorporating colored contact lenses into my cosplay. I’m going to devote a whole post to that process which should be written in the next week or two. Once I have mastered colored contacts, I’d love to incorporate body paint. I will probably repeat the process I listed earlier, where I might cringe at photos where I first start using body paint, but then I will get better over time.

I am proud of myself for how much I have accomplished with cosplay. Cosplay has been a creative outlet for me in my day-to-day life. I am going to be more appreciative and respectful of myself as I think these older cosplay photos are inspiring to me. Cosplay wasn’t a hobby I gave up on and I intend to keep going and learning new things as I go.