I started cosplaying in 2013 when I attended my first convention. My friend and I thrifted overalls for a Mario & Luigi cosplay. My interest in cosplay developed since then as I have cosplayed Wonder Woman, Harley Quinn, the Punisher, and a variety of other characters. I set two personal rules for cosplay. The first rule I had was to wear comfortable shoes. I have no problems wearing heels for a nice dinner where I know I won’t have to walk too far. At a convention, I know I’ll be walking everywhere, so I will not wear uncomfortable shoes and be miserable the entire time I’m there. The second rule was to never wear wigs. I figured wigs were itchy, and I didn’t want to be uncomfortable. Recently, I started wearing wigs for certain events, and I realized I was wrong. I wasn’t itchy, and I loved how wearing a wig elevated my cosplay. I wanted to talk about my experience with wigs.

My first experience wearing a wig was for a friend’s birthday party. She was hosting a color party where each person was assigned a color and had to wear that entire color. I told my friend to give me the color no one wanted because I wanted a challenge. The color I was assigned was orange. I ended up finding a short orange bob wig on Amazon and paired that with orange tights, an orange crop top, and orange shorts. Included in my wig were various wig caps to ensure that my hair was put up and out of the way. The wig I bought fits my head perfectly. Unfortunately, I ended up throwing the wig out because I think someone spilled a drink on it. It smelled like booze and sweat, and it was clear some of the hair fell out through the night.

Besides the orange wig, I ended up renting Halloween costumes this year since I didn’t have time to plan out my costumes. I used Royal Fashions Costume Emporium to portray both Alice in Wonderland and Daenerys. Both costumes utilized the same blonde wig. Similar to my orange wig experience, I loved this wig. I felt sassier portraying Daenerys, and part of the reason the look came together was because of the wig. The more I incorporated wigs into my cosplay or costuming, the more I became a part of that character. I slowly started to realize how wrong I was about wigs.

For my future cosplays, I plan to incorporate wigs in the future. I have a long orange wig hanging near my closet that I still have to use. I want to make a Keyleth cosplay from Critical Role or use it for a future Starfire cosplay. I’m excited to start incorporating wigs into my cosplays!

I was telling a couple of coworkers about Gen Con. One coworker made a comment asking, why do you cosplay? She doesn’t know enough about cosplay to know why someone would want to dress up as a fictional character and parade around a convention hall. It’s a legitimate question especially because she had never heard of the term cosplay before. I thought about my answer and this made me want to devote a whole post as to not only why I cosplay, but how it improved my self esteem.

When I was in middle school, I was increasingly aware of how much I hated my body. When I say hate I meant I truly despised the way I looked in the mirror. I didn’t feel confident when I would wear shorts or a swimsuit. I didn’t know if I would ever come to appreciate my body the way it is.

When I graduated from high school, my confidence started to blossom, but I had a long way to go to address how I felt about my body. When I went to my first CONvergence back in 2013 was when I cosplayed for the first time. Me and a friend cosplayed as Mario & Luigi. It was a simple cosplay I purchased from Ragstock. However, once I put it on, I felt cute and could walk around and do what I pleased. I received some warmhearted compliments on my cosplay. Once CONvergence was over, I knew I wanted to do more with cosplay and challenge myself to take on other characters.

The more I cosplayed, the more my confident I became. There were cosplays that were more revealing than others. What empowered me though was the control I had to show what I wanted on my terms. It was my body and I could conceal or reveal it if I chose to. This conscious choice I made is what has allowed me to fall in love with myself and the way I am. Additionally, cosplay exposed me to other body types and seeing other people rocking what they have, creates this open and accepting environment. 

I owe a lot to cosplay and how it’s changed my way of thinking. Every time I know I’m attending a convention, my head starts spinning as to potential cosplay options. Once I settle on an idea, I’m determined to pull it off. My relationship with my body is one I will always have to work on and be aware of, but I’m at a much better place mentally and all it took was to dress up as Harley Quinn.