Cosplay is, and should be, for everyone.
Regardless of a cosplayer’s skill level, budget, or body type, cosplay is for everyone.
This isn’t just to remind and encourage you, dear readers; it’s also to remind and encourage me.
Mrs. Gryphon and I are still relatively new cosplayers, and we were so fortunate to find ourselves in the middle of a very welcoming, loving, and accepting community of local cosplayers. We’ve taken risks we wouldn’t have taken, embraced challenges that might otherwise have scared us off, and thrown ourselves headlong into the cosplay community because we’ve gone forward with the support and love of our friends.
With the encouragement of our friends, we tried some new costumes, a costume with a transformation, and a skit.
Sadly, our most recent cosplay competition was a little disheartening. We’d been warned that we were headed into a stiffer competition with tougher judging than we’d faced, but even with that warning, this was the first time I’ve ever left a judging not feeling proud of my work.
The skit judges were incredible and gave us great feedback!
The craftmanship judges, on the other hand, didn’t give us any feedback. Even criticism would have let us know they actually saw our cosplay, but I left feeling like I’d wasted the judges’ time, like I’d been an inconvenience, and it was heartbreaking.
Even in competition, no one should ever feel like their cosplay isn’t good enough.
If you take the time to cosplay the characters you love, whether it’s closet cosplay, crafted from foam, meticulously stitched with period construction, or even made from cardboard, you are amazing! You have courage, skill, and resolve that is to be admired.
Cosplay is for everyone. Anybody, and any body. Any skill level. Any budget.
Never forget that, and never forget to be proud of your work.
With every cosplay, we learn and we grow. With every competition, we become better.
I hope that every one of our readers who cosplay has as amazing a community around them as we do, and if you ever leave a competition (or even an encounter with another congoer) not feeling like you’re amazing, remember that they’re wrong, not you.
Cosplay is for everyone, and you’re amazing.
